Alternate tale of the Awakening
by Sanjima
Summary: A retelling of the events of Fire Emblem: Awakening with my own changes and twists here and there. Join Chrom and the Shepherds in this familiar yet not so familiar adventure, where things aren't simply what they seem to be.
1. The verge of history

**Chapter 1 - The verge of history**

"Arrgggghhhhhhhhhh!" My opponent let out a painful yell as my sword slashed across his torso. Fountain of blood immediately came spilling out of the wound. He stumbled back a few step before finally succumbed to the wound and fell down to the ground.

"Yes! We did it!" My trusted tactician yelled out loud and quickly ran towards me to share his joy of victory.

"Yes, we finally did it…" I smiled at him, then turned towards other subordinate of mine and let out the victory cry. "Everyone! This battle has ended! Victory is ours!"

"Not… so… FAST!"

Huh?

"Chrom! Watch out!"

Everything happened so fast, I wasn't sure what exactly was going on, but my tactician suddenly pushed me away from where I was standing… And his body got hit by something, and then he fell down to the ground.

"Hey, hey… Are you okay? Say something!" I quickly rushed to him and hold him up my arms.

"Ch… Chrom…" His voice trembles as he tried to call out my name.

"Don't say anything. It will be alright." I tried to calm him down then turned to call for help. "Maribelle! Give me a hand over…"

!

"… here?"

"Chr… Chrom…"

Wha… What happened?!

Why… is there… a lightning bolt… sticking out… of my chest?

Urgh…

"Chrom… I…"

Argh…

"Chrom…"

…

"Chrom! Chrom! CHROM!"

… … …

"Chrom!"

"Huh?"

His little sister's voice brings him back to reality, just in time for him to defend himself from the attack coming down from above.

CLANK!

"Gah!" The impact from the collision of the weapons made Chrom staggers backward a step and helped him realized what situation he's currently in. He is currently in the training ground of the Shepherds' garrison, situated just outside the wall of Ylisstol, the capital of the Halidom of Ylisse. And as of right now, he is currently engaging in his daily duel with his so called arch-rival, Vaike.

"Hah! What's wrong, Chrom? If you don't pay attention, then I'll be the one to achieve victory in this match!" Say Vaike as he tries to overwhelm Chrom with his physical might.

"Keep dreaming, Vaike." Chrom loosen his grip on the sword and slightly move to the side. This sudden movement made Vaike lost his balance and staggers forward. Taking advantage of this, Chrom immediately kicks Vaike in the abdomen, sending him flying a few steps back. Not wasting a single second, Chrom rushes in. And the moment Vaike's body touches the ground, the tip of Chrom's sword has already wait for him mere inches away from his throat.

"I won, Vaike." Chrom declares himself as the winner.

"Bah!" Vaike gets up and shakes his head in annoyance. "This is absurd! The great Teach's suppose to be invincible and yet I keep loosing to you days after days like this. I just don't understand!"

"Haa…" Chrom sighs and walks over to Vaike to offer him a hand. "I already told you a thousand times, Vaike. I have the weapon advantage over you, and while you are stronger and more durable than me, I beat you in terms of skill and speed. If you don't understand that, then you will never be able to beat me."

"Bah! A bunch of nonsense!" Vaike takes Chrom's hand and get up from the ground. "Thinking is overrated! You can't think in the middle of the battlefield, you can only follow your instinct! And trust me, Teach here have the instinct of a wild hunting beast!"

"Sure, Vaike, you're a wild hunting beast." Chrom's little sister, Lissa, called out. "Here, I prepared some water for you two."

Lissa gives two cup of water to Chrom and Vaike. Vaike takes the cup and gulp it down in one go. Chrom, on the other hand, while he also takes the cup, he doesn't drink it, instead he looks to be in deep thought.

"Brother?" Lissa calls out to him, but there was no respond.

"Brother?" Lissa calls out to him once more, but again no respond from Chrom.

"BROTHER!"

"Ah, wha-what was it, Lissa?"

"Geez… Are you feeling alright, brother? You've been acting funny a lot lately. You even daze off in the middle of the duel with Vaike earlier…" Lissa then brings her hand to Chrom's forehead to check his temperature. "Hm… Seems pretty normal to me."

"I'm fine…" Chrom brushes Lissa's hand off. "It's just that… There's this dream that's been bugging me lately."

"A dream?" Vaike raises an eyebrow. "Never knew you were the dreamy type. Care to share the story?"

Chrom tries to recall the dream he's been having lately.

In that dream, he was fighting someone unfamiliar, and just as he emerged in victory, he was stabbed to death by one of his comrades. And as his dead body lie on the cold ground, his companions came rushing at him and called out to him but in vain, and in the end they too all got attacked and killed by the one that stabbed him.

Normally, Chrom wouldn't pay a second thought to a mere dream. But this dream is an exception, it was too vivid and too real, like it actually happened before. And what's more, he didn't see this dream once, he's seen it many times in this past weeks, like it wasn't just a mere dream, but a warning to him about his eventual demise some times in the future. Thinking about it sends a chill down his spine.

"No, it's nothing…" Chrom shakes his head. His head hurts as he tries to recall the dream. "Sorry, Vaike. But I think we should call it a day, I'm not feeling very well right now…"

"Um, milord…"

"GAH!" The sudden voice that came out of nowhere shocks Chrom, Lissa and Vaike. They all turn to the direction of the voice to see who it was…

"Urgh… Kellam?" Chrom frowns. "Since when were you here?"

"Um, from the beginning of your duel with Vaike?" Kellam answers. "I was standing right next to the princess this whole time."

"But how…?" Lissa looks confused. "Next time, please say something to me if you're nearby, okay Kellam?"

"Aye, princess."

"And please stop calling my princess, too."

"Aye, prince… Urgh, I mean, aye!"

"Anyway…" Chrom says. "Do you need anything, Kellam?"

"Milord, it was Sir Frederick." Kellam answers. "He said that there has been sighting of large groups of bandit near the vicinity of Southtown and wanted your order to go obliterate those bandits. He's currently waiting for you outside of the garrison."

"Southtown? That's the town that directly south of here, right?" Vaike asks.

"Yes, from here, it shouldn't take more than a day to reach the town.." Chrom answers. "This is worrisome… I've heard that bandits have been appearing near the border as of late. But Southtown? I should really go there myself to take care of those bandits."

"Hey, Chrom!" Lissa pulls Chrom's cape. "If you're going then I'm going with you, too."

"Hey, if the little lady is going then Teach's coming with you, too!" Vaike says.

"Then maybe I should go too?" Kellam says.

"Alright now, you three. Let's go talk with Frederick to know more about the situation before deciding on whom to go, okay?"

Lissa, Vaike and Kellam all agree with Chrom. They then head outside of the garrison to meet with Frederick. Once they're outside, they see Frederick, clad in full armor with a silver lance and a steel bronze sword in hands, leaning on one of the trees. Standing next to Frederick is his trusted steed, also clad in full armor just like its master, and it is currently engaging in a heated discussion with Sumia(?).

"I know right? He isn't called Frederick the Wary for no reason, right?" Sumia talks to the steed.

"Um… Sumia" Frederick calls out to her. "I appreciate your… friendliness towards my steed, but don't you think you're being… too 'friendly' with it?"

"Aw… Look! Your master is jealous."

"No, look… I mean…"

"Ahem…" Chrom clears his throat to catch their attention.

"Oh, milord and milady. You've come." Frederick bows to Chrom and Lissa.

"Ah, lord Chrom." Sumia also quickly follows Frederick and bows to Chrom and Lissa.

"Peace, both of you." Chrom then turns toward Frederick. "Now, Frederick. Tell me more about these bandits at Southtown."

"Aye, milord." Frederick pulls out a small map from one of the bags hanging on his steed to show to everyone. "Southtown is here, directly south of Ylisstol. If we go by horse, then it wouldn't take a day to reach the town."

"Yeah, basic stuff. We all know that already." Vaike pokes in.

"Vaike, if you please?" Chrom scolds Vaike. "Now, continue, Frederick."

"Right. There have been quite a few reports of bandits lately, but they are all near the border and never actually go any deeper into Ylisse's territory. But…" Frederick then points to various locations on the map, the first few locations are somewhere near the border, but then they got further and further away from the border. "These are the locations that our pegasi knight squad fighting the bandits over these past few days. And as you can see, the fighting locations just keep going further south. At this rate…"

"… The next place the bandits going to visit is Southtown." Sumia says.

"Exactly." Frederick nods. "But the mission of the pegasi knight quad is to keep the border safe, so they won't be able to do anything if the bandits keep roaming further into our territory like that. And if my calculation is right, they will probably reach Southtown in 2 or 3 days from now. Milord, I ask that you give me permission to go and annihilate those scoundrels!"

"There's no need to ask me for permission, Frederick." Say Chrom. "Protecting the people and keeping the peace of Ylisse is the job of us Shepherds after all. I'll even personally go with you to destroy those bandits!"

"Aye, milord!"

"Hey, Chrom! I'm going, too!" Lissa pulls Chrom's cape one more time.

"What says you, Frederick?" Chrom asks Frederick for his opinions.

"It would be dangerous, but lady Lissa is a member of the Shepherds, too. So I think it would be good for her in the long run to gain some experience in actual battle." Frederick answers.

"Teach here is going, too! And don't bother to object, I won't take no for an answer!" Vaike pokes in.

"Yes, you can come too, Vaike. We need as many helps as we can get to deal with the bandits after all." Frederick says.

"Then what about you, Sumia?" Chrom asks Sumia.

"Oh, I would love to go with you, lord Chrom. But…" Sumia looks troubled. "But… I fear that I'm still not experienced enough, I'll just be a hindrance to you. I think I should stay here and train as diligently as I can while you are away. I'll even pray for your safety, I promise!"

"If you say so…" Chrom sighs. "Now, who else is free?"

"Sully and Stahl are currently away patrolling. Miriel is busy with her new experiments. Maribelle is currently with the pegasi knight squad. So I fear that milord, lady Lissa, me and Vaike are all we could spare at the moment." Frederick answers.

"Um… Aren't we forgetting someone?" Lissa frowns.

"Who?" Vaike starts counting. "Excluding Chrom, the Shepherds have the total of 8 members, right? You, The Great Me, Frederick the Wary, Sully, Stahl, Sumia, Miriel, Maribelle. That's all! We aren't forgetting anyone…"

"Um… You're forgetting me."

"GAH!"

"Geez… Kellam! Don't scare me like that!" Lissa pats Kellam on one of his shoulder pads.

"B-but I didn't do anything."

"Peace, everyone." Chrom says. "The 4 of us are enough to deal with the bandits. I think it is best that you stay here with Sumia to help with her training, Kellam."

"Aye, milord." Kellam obeys his lord's order, but he sounds somewhat disappointed.

With that, everything was decided. Frederick urged Chrom to hear to Southtown immediately, but Chrom suggested that they leave in half an hour so he, Lissa and Vaike can prepare needed weapons and vulneraries properly, especially Vaike.

That afternoon, Chrom, Frederick, Lissa and Vaike left the Shepherds' garrison and headed south towards Southtown. The journey went smoothly without any trouble.

…

That following morning, the group was finally near Southtown…

"Say…" Vaike, who was riding on a horse with Frederick, asks Chrom, who was riding another horse together with Lissa. "I never knew that you could ride a horse, Chrom."

"I am one of royal blood, Vaike. It is my duty to be well-versed in the art of horse-riding and archery. If anything, I'm more surprised at the fact that _you_ can't ride a horse." Chrom answers.

"Well, that's because Teach's too busy training his martial prowess that he ain't got time for such things!" Vaike shrugs.

"Milord! Look!" Frederick calls out to Chrom and points to the distance.

Everyone look toward the direction Frederick pointed. In the distance, they can see a small group of people, running towards them. Or to be more precise, three exhausted-looking men and a small group of angry men chasing right behind those men, are running toward them.

"Those men look like they are in trouble! Let's go help them, Chrom!" Lissa urges.

"Alright. Frederick, let's go!" Chrom rowels the horse to rush toward the three men.

…

"You three, what is going on here?" Chrom asks the men.

"Heee, you got to help us please! Those guys-those bandits chasing after us, they want to have our heads!" One of the men screams.

"Bandits?" Chrom looks at the other group of men. "They don't look like bandits to me… Wait, hey!"

Chrom calls out to the three men, but it was no use. They continue to run away as fast they can, screaming in terror.

"What are ya waiting for, Chrom? Let's give those bandits a beating!" With an iron axe in hand, Vaike hops off the horse and rushes towards the incoming group of men.

"Wait, Vaike!" Frederick tries to call Vaike off, but his words fell on deaf ears.

"Enter the Vaike! Shyah!" Vaike let out his battle cry and start attacking one of the leading men, a tall man if somewhat scrawny-looking. Vaike swings the axe over his head and chops it down like chopping a piece of wood. His opponent, however, doesn't seem like a mere simpleton, as he quickly dodges out of the way of axe and counterattack with his sword.

"En garde!" shouts the tall man as he swings his sword to the opening left side of Vaike, Vaike hastily withdraws his axe to guard against the attack, and the two weapons collide. At that moment, Vaike hesitated, only for an instance, Vaike hesitated.

"Hand!" shouts the tall man as he pulls his sword away from Vaike's axe and immediately follow with a slash to Vaike's left hand. The wound wasn't big nor was it deep, but it was enough to make Vaike loosen his grip on the axe. Taking advantage of that, the tall man continues his attacks and knocks away the axe out of Vaike's hand.

"Head!" shouts the tall man as he tries to plunge the tip of his sword at Vaike's forehead, but before the sword reaches its intended destination, it was stopped by another sword of someone else. It was stopped by Chrom's legendary weapon, the Falchion.

"That's enough!" Chrom glares at the tall man.

The tall man glares back at Chrom. The two exchange gaze for a second, then the tall man sheathes his sword back into its scabbard.

"Who are you guys?" the tall man asks Chrom.

"My name is Chrom."

"Chrom? As in, prince Chrom of the Halidom?"

"That would be me." Chrom shows the man his Brand of Exalt on his right shoulder to give proof of his claim. "And the guy here and others behind me are members of the Shepherds. Now then, can I ask who are you guys and why are you guys chasing after those three men? It's hard to believe that someone with such fine swordsmanship would be a bandit."

"Bandit?! Us?" The tall man looks surprised, what Chrom just said seems to have offended him somewhat. "I think you are mistaken. Those three men we were chasing after are the bandits, not us!"

"What?" Chrom turns around to look for those three men, but they are already nowhere to be seen.

That's right. Yeah. You are mistaken. Those guys are the bandits. Other men also start to yell at Chrom.

"Mind your manners, everyone. Standing before you is the prince of the Halidom of Ylisse! Don't make me look bad here!" The tall man scolds the men behind him. "Please forgive their rudeness, prince Chrom. Ah, is your companion alright? I thought he was one of the bandits…"

"Meh!" Vaike spits to the ground and get up, trying to act like he just took a short nap. "It doesn't even itch!"

"Stop trying to act cool, Vaike." Lissa approaches Vaike, with Frederick leading the horses following right behind her. Lissa takes out her staff and started chanting to heal the wound on his hand, after she's done with the healing, she pats on Vaike's shoulder and snarls at him. "It was such a one-sided fight, it isn't funny."

"He was using an axe. I was using a sword. I have the weapon advantage, so it's only natural that victory is mine. If it weren't for the weapon triangle, I'd say he's quite a fighter." The tall man says.

"Bah! Not those weapon's advantage nonsense again!" Vaike shakes his head.

" Haha. Don't be so humble, it was clear as day that you are the better fighter." Chrom laughs. "Say, I'm afraid I didn't catch your name."

"Oh, where's my manner." The tall man scratches his head. "My name is Amund. The bandits attacked our town this morning, so I gather a small group of young men to drive them back. Most of them were captured or killed in town, we were chasing the last three of them until we met you, prince Chrom."

"You drove back a large group of bandit by yourselves? That's… mighty impressive, I must say." Frederick praises Amund, though his facial expression seems a bit complicated, like he's not sure if he should be impresses or be doubtful about such claims.

"Oh no, we are not ones who you should be praising…" Amund laughs. "We managed to drive those bandits away thanks to a traveler."

"A traveler?" Chrom asks curiously.

"Yes, a very bright young man, that lad. Not only he warned us about the bandits beforehand, he even helped us to prepare traps and taught us the most effective ways to fight them. If it weren't for him, then the whole Southtown may have been razed down already." Amund answers.

"Hm… That does sound impressive, indeed." Chrom laughs. "I'd like to meet this traveler and have a chat with him. I think we'd get along very well."

"Sure, he's currently in town 'taking care' of the captured bandits. Come, let us show you the way."

So, Amund's group led Chrom and his companions into town.

When first arrived at the outskirt of the town, Chrom could see smoke rising from various places across the town, even though there isn't any visible damage to the buildings, presumably this is the result of the traps that Amund just talked about.

Everyone then headed to the central of the town, where a large number of people gathered. Or to be more precise, a large number of townsfolk, a pile of dead bodies (presumably, the dead bodies of the bandits), a small number of grown men tied up like a pieces of luggage, and a man cloaked in black robes with red patterns painted on it and a hood that covers half of his head, making his face barely visible, and for some reasons, is holding a hoe with a small bag hanging at one end. It looks like the hooded man is talking with one of the older townsfolk about something.

"Alright, I heard ya, lad. Ya don't needa tell me da same thing thrice. I'll treat her like my own grandchildren, I promise." The old man replies to the hooded man.

"Thank you, grandpa. Then do whatever you want with the bandits over there, I'll take my leave here." The hooded man bows to the old man and turns around to walk away.

"Hey, wait a minute there, young lad!" Amund calls out to the hooded man.

"Hm? Amund?" The hooded man stops and looks over to Amund, he then notices Chrom and companions. "I don't remember those faces among the bandits that got away."

"Of course not. They are no bandits, they are the Shepherds, you silly." Amund laughs and pats the hooded man on his shoulders.

"Okay… Didn't know tending sheep requires you to be fashionable." The hooded man says in a monotone voice, looking at Chrom and his companions from head to toe.

"Um…" Chrom clears his throat. "Shepherds is just a name, we aren't exactly sheep tenders. Anyway, my name is Chrom, the leader of the Shepherds. We was going to assist this town in fighting the bandits, but it looks like it wasn't very necessary, since you've already drove away those bandits by yourself."

"Who?"

"Um… You?" Chrom looks at the hooded man with a troubled look. "Amund told me that if it weren't for your help, this town would have been pillaged and razed down by the bandits."

"No, I didn't." The hooded man quickly shoots down Chrom's statement. "Amund and his gang did all the work. I didn't do anything."

"Now, don't be so humble. It was thanks to your warning and traps that we've wiped out the majority of those bandits. Me and everybody else only provided clean up." Amund gives another to the hooded man's back. "Take your time, lad. It's not an everyday thing that you get to meet someone famous. Just leave those captured bandits to me and everyone else."

Amund then turns to walk toward the townsfolk, leaving only the hooded man with Chrom and his companions. Even though the hood is making it hard to see his expressions, Chrom is pretty sure that the man is being quite uncomfortable with the situation.

"Well… Don't be like that. I only wanted to meet with you in person and have a little chat with you. At least let me have the honor of knowing your name." Chrom says.

The hooded man stays silent for a few seconds, like he was pondering whether to tell his name or not. Then finally, he decided to speak.

"My name…"

…

* * *

_Sanjima: Hello there, everyone. And thank you for reading until the end of this first chapter. I hope you enjoyed it because I have high hope for this story. I also hope that I'll be able to complete this fanfic since my other long fanfics were all dropped halfway due to circumstances... Anyway, please feel free to give comments and feedback, I'd really appreciate it._


	2. Before an end to the ordinary

**Chapter 2: Before an end to the ordinary**

"Um… Pardon me, but-how is your name pronounced again? Shiliew? Shrew? Scrooge? Scrooge, right?" Chrom tries to pronounce the name with difficulty.

"Haa… Yes, right… Call me Scrooge" The hooded man, Scrooge, sighs.

"So, um… I heard that you're a traveler. Reckon you're not from Ylisse?" Chrom tries to find a topic to talk about.

"Ylisse?"

"Ylisse, the Halidom of Ylisse… Does that ring any bell?"

"Afraid not."

"It's the name of the kingdom you're currently living in!" Vaike yells. "God, are you just dense or there's something wrong with you?"

"Peace, Vaike." Frederick scolds Vaike.

"Please forgive him, Scrooge. Vaike here is a little too hot-headed for his own good." Chrom says. "Ah, that reminds me, I haven't introduced my companions yet…"

"No need." Scrooge stops Chrom. "I don't think we will meet again, so don't waste your time with a stranger like me."

"Why, you brat!" Vaike is visibly angry at Scrooge's attitude. He may even have jumped in Scrooge in the face had Frederick not stop him from doing so.

"Control yourself, Vaike! Don't be so rash!" Frederick scolds Vaike again, then stares at Scrooge with a stare as sharp as a knife. "However… Having said that, I still can't tolerate your insolence."

"Not you too, Frederick?" Even Lissa is growing uneasy.

"I'm sorry, milady. But not only did he refuse to show his face like how a true gentleman should, he also speaks nothing but nonsense with a completely disagreeable attitude. Such behavior is completely unacceptable in front of some one of the holy blood!" Frederick continues to criticize Scrooge.

"Peace, Frederick!" Chrom stops Frederick from anything further. "I'm sure it was intentional, Scrooge may just be unfamiliar with our kingdom is all."

"Sorry about that then." Scrooge apologizes. Then he takes off the hood, revealing his face of that of young man, probably no older than 16, with shoulder-length black hair, somewhat unique eyebrows that has a small kink at the end of its tip, and a pair of tired-looking black eyes.

"Didn't know what I did was consider to be rude here." Scrooge continues. "The hood helps me avoid direct exposure to the sunlight and keeps my head cool. No excuses about the attitude though, that's how I talk normally."

"See?" Chrom tells Frederick and Vaike.

"But wow… Earlier, I thought you were older because of your voice." Lissa speaks up. "You don't look that older than me."

"…" For some reason, Scrooge didn't so much react to that statement, which made Lissa feels somewhat uneasy again.

"Well, anyway…" Chrom clears his throat and start to introduce his companions. "My name is Chrom, as you've known. This girl here is my cute little sister, Lissa. I have another older sister named Emmeryn, but she is not here. This man in full armor is my second-in-command, Frederick the Wary. And the hot-blooded big guy here is Vaike."

"So, if you're not hail from Ylisse, then…" Chrom tries to find another topic to talk about. "… Scratch that, where do you intend to head next, Scrooge?"

"Actually…" Scrooge scratches his head. "I'm trying to find a way home."

"Are you lost or something?" Chrom asks.

"Technically, yes." Scrooge answers. "I don't know how I can get home exactly, but I think heading west might help."

"Heading west?" Frederick speaks up. "You mean to head to Plegia?"

"Plegia?" Scrooge asks, like he had no idea what Plegia is.

"Plegia is Ylisse's westerly neighbor. Our relationship is a bit unstable, as they've been provoking us constantly by sending small bands into our territory."Chrom explains.

"Is that so?" Scrooge voice makes it sound like he just learnt something new, but his facial expression hardly changes. "I've heard from the people here that this kingdom and its neighbor are on the verge of war, and that kingdom west of here is home to powerful dark magic, but I didn't know its name was Plegia."

"It is so." Chrom looks troubled. "Even though our kingdom wants nothing more than peace, its mad king, Gangrel, has been harassing us constantly over the year. If it wasn't for our older sister, I would have gathered an army and go put a stop to him once and for all already!"

"What does your sister has anything to do with this?" Scrooge raises an eyebrow.

"Ah, right… I didn't tell you that my older sister is the ruler of this kingdom, did I?"

"Sure not… Which, makes you and your little sister royalty, too?"

"Um." Chrom nods.

"So tending sheep is royalty's newest hobby. I better remember that." Scrooge says, with a complete monotone voice.

"I told you, it's just a name!" Chrom lost his cool and yells. "We Shepherds is a small militia group, dedicated to protecting the peace and order of the Halidom, not tending sheep!"

"Figures, you did say you guys were here to take care of the bandits after all."

"Then why did you…?"

"Relax, it was just a joke, okay?" For the first time, a smile blooms on Scrooge's face. "You guys were so tense, I thought I'd crack up a joke."

"That wasn't funny." Chrom scowls.

"It was, to me." Scrooge laughs. Lissa and Vaike also can't help but giggle at Chrom. Frederick remains unfazed though.

After that, the Shepherds went helping the townsfolk with the corpses, Scrooge also decided to help out instead of leaving. The captured bandits were spared by the elders, and were allowed to live in the town if they promise to never to commit evil deeds. The bandits happily agreed, and all's well that ends well.

When finished with taking care of the bandits, Chrom asked Amund to join the Shepherds. Amund answered that he wanted to keep watching over Southtown to ensure its peace for some more time, but if the Halidom of Ylisse ever find itself in need of man power, then he will go find Chrom.

The elders suggested spending a night before leaving, but Chrom refused, saying that there is someone waiting for him to return and that he doesn't want to keep that person waiting. So Chrom and his companions left the town that afternoon.

As the only to travel to Plegia is go along the main road the leads to the border, Scrooge has to travel the same way with Chrom and his companion until they reach the west side of Ylisstol. So, Chrom suggested that they travel together as a group, which Scrooge agreed.

…

Later that day, as the sun fades away, leaving its task to shine the world to the moon…

"Milord, it's getting late. I suggest we camp out here for tonight." Say Frederick.

"I told you we should have spent the night in town. Now we have to camp out in the open, again." Lissa complains. "Agh, look at all the disgusting slimy creepy bugs flying around. Bleh!"

"Aw, come on now, Lissa. Sleeping in a nice, warm sheet definitely feels good, but it's also nice to sleep in the open once in a while." Chrom smiles. "Plus, hardship builds character. It's not every day that you have a chance to do this. You should savor the experience."

"I would savor it if we hadn't done the exact same thing, you know, yesterday." Lissa pouts.

"Alright alright, hahaha." Chrom laughs. "Now, we've had bear meat yesterday. Who's up for some wild boar today?"

"Aw yeah! Then I'll go hunting with you Chrom! Let's compete to see which one of us can hunt a boar first!" Vaike puffs his chest. "And for your information, the bear last night doesn't count! You had Frederick help you with the hunt!"

"Yes, right, Vaike…" Chrom smirks.

"As for me, since I can't fight well, I think I'll go gather some firewood." Scrooge says.

"Oh! Then I'll help you with the gathering, Scrooge." Lissa cheerfully volunteer to go with Scrooge.

"On second thought, switch place with me, Chrom. I'll go boar hunting with Vaike." Scrooge quickly withdraws to next to Chrom, much to Lissa's surprise.

"Well, if you insist…" Chrom reluctantly agrees with Scrooge, which just add more to Lissa's disappointment.

"No way, I refuse!" Vaike objects. "When I go hunting, I want excitement! I want competition! How can I get any of that while I babysitting you through the hunt?!"

"Don't you go underestimate me just because I said I can't fight." Scrooge smirks. "Me and my hoe will prove to be more than just a match to you. Or unless you're scared of losing?"

"What?! Hell no! You're on then! Don't go crying to your mommy when you lose!" Saying so, Vaike dashes off to find his prey.

"That was easy…" Scrooge sighs in relief. "Then, see you all. I better go preparing too or I really will lose to Vaike."

Scrooge walks away in a different direction of Vaike, leaving Chrom, Frederick and a distressed Lissa behind.

"Is it just me, or Scrooge doesn't seem to be fond of me?" Lissa asks Chrom with downcast eyes.

"Don't be like that, Lissa." Chrom pets her head. "Maybe Scrooge just happened to be in the mood for some hunting, maybe… Anyway, let's go gather the firewood. It'll cheer you up."

"Then I'll be here to clear a campsite. I await your return, milord and milady." Frederick bows to Chrom and Lissa.

…

Later that night, the five of them gathered around the campsite prepared by Frederick, and is currently enjoying the meat of the wild boar caught by, surprisingly, Scrooge.

"Mmm… Bear is delicious too, but it sure can't beat the juicy taste of wild boar meat." Chrom praises the food as he wolf down yet another large piece of meat. "… What's wrong, Lissa? Dig in."

"Sorry, but I think I'll pass… The smell and taste is a little bit too much for me."

"Then give that to me!" Vaike forcefully take away Lissa's portion and wolf it down in one go. It seems he's still angry about losing to Scrooge.

"Hey!" Lissa pouts at Vaike. "Just because you lost your bet doesn't mean you can let out your anger on me!"

"Teach ain't lose to no one, I tell ya!" Vaike slams his fist onto the ground. "He cheated! I was chasing after the boar, and it would have been mine if it didn't fall into his stupid pit trap!"

"Yes, and thanks for luring the poor boar for me, _Teach_." Scrooge smirks.

"Even though you can't fight, you sure have some amazing vision, Scrooge." Chrom praises Scrooge. "You even managed to predict the bandit's attack on Southtown, didn't you? Can I ask how did you do that?"

"Actually… I didn't."

"Wha-?"

"I kinda overheard a few conversations when I was having dinner at the inn. Like how some merchants complaining about their supply wagons never arrived, the inn owner worried about the strain relationship with the neighbor kingdom and its ruler is some kind of sadistic mad man. Put two and two together, and I figured that that neighborly ruler definitely wasn't planning any evil scheme like sending bandits over the border to ignite the flame of war." Scrooge shrugs. "Plus, I didn't have any money with me so I thought I'd sell this 'theory' to the inn owner as payment. He didn't believe me at first, but fortunately Amund was nearby and bought it."

"In short, you were just bluffing and it happened to be true?" Frederick raises an eyebrow.

"Kinda, I did think that bandits would show up sooner or later, but I didn't expect them to come today." Scrooge shakes his head in annoyance.

"But, you still managed to defeat those bandits with nothing but your wit, didn't you? Not everyone can do something like that." Chrom says.

"I told you Amund and his gang did most of the work." Scrooge sighs. "Since I can't fight well, I need to have a sound head on my shoulders, otherwise I won't be able to live past 20."

"Speaking of age, I've been meaning to ask, but how old are you exactly, Scrooge?" Lissa asks Scrooge, hoping to have a real conversation with him for a change.

"…" Scrooge remains silent, which make Lissa think he really is avoiding talking to her. But, actually, he wasn't. Scrooge tilts his head a little bit, like he's pondering about how to answer the question. Then after a few seconds, he finally speaks up. "… Actually, I'm not really sure about that myself."

"You don't even know how old you are?! Now that's just absurd!" Vaike yells. "Or did you hit your head into a rock and lost your memory or something? That would explain how you didn't even know the name of this Halidom."

"No-It's just that… I stopped counting after a while…" Scrooge scratches his head. "If I have to guess, urgh… 19, maybe?"

"19?" Lissa is surprised. "You don't look that much older than me. And I'm only 16!"

The night went on, with everyone chatting about various topics until they are all tired and eventually fall asleep…

…

"Chr… Chrom…"

Urgh…

"Chrom… I…"

Argh…

"Chrom…"

Argh…

"G… Gri…"

…

"!"

"Oh, you're awake now…."

Chrom quickly gets up from the ground, his whole body covered in sweat, and his breathing is going wild. He takes a quick look around and sees that he's still at the campsite. Everyone else is still fast asleep, except for the one who just woke him up, Scrooge.

"Wha-what happened?" Chrom asks.

"That's what I want to know here." Scrooge folds his arms across his chest with a worried look. "You were sweating like a pig and moaning like you are about to be served on the plate… Had a nightmare or something?"

"Urgh…" Chrom swiped the sweat off his forehead and tries to control his breathing back to normal. "Yes, something like that…"

Scrooge opens up the bag that he was carrying with him, takes out some kind of herb and gives them to Chrom. "Here, these may help."

"What kind of herbs are those?" Chrom asks.

"Dunno." Scrooge shrugs. "But I also have trouble sleeping and these herbs kinda help somewhat."

"Thank you, but I think I'll pass…"

"Suit yourself." Scrooge puts the herbs back into the bag.

"So, uh…" Since he doesn't think he can go back to sleep any time soon, Chrom tries to think up a topic to talk with Scrooge. "What is in the bag?"

"Stuff… a lot of herbs, torches, water and dried food for my travelling. Most of them are rewarded by the elders back in the town."

"You seriously want to cross the border?"

"Of course…"

"Is that so?"

"It is so."

"…"

"…"

The two of them continue to remain silent. Seems like they have ran out of topic to talk about, or just haven't think up one yet…

"So uh…" Chrom scratches his head. "Since you also have trouble sleeping. Want to go for a walk?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Um…" Maybe it was because of the noises made by Chrom and Scrooge, Lissa has also wakes up. "*yawn* What's wrong, Big Brother?"

"Sorry, did we wake you up?" Chrom apologizes. "Scrooge and I were just thinking about taking a midnight stroll. Don't worry, just go back to sleep."

"*yawn* Then I'm coming too…" Lissa rubs her eyes and unsteadily stands up. "It's not every day that we have a chance to do this, so we should savor the moment, right?"

"Heh. Thanks, Lissa." Chrom smiles.

…

"So, what prompts the sudden stroll?" Lissa asks. "Did you see that dream again?"

"Again?" Scrooge seems to be interested.

"Yes, you see… I've been seeing the same dream over and over again lately." Chrom shakes his head. "Normally, I don't think much about dreams, but this dream is different… It is too vivid and too real to be just a mere dream."

"… I see." Scrooge nods. "I won't ask you details of the dream, but don't try to think about it too much. Try not to think of it as anything more than just a dream, it'd be better for your health that way."

"Even if you say so…"

"Look, I dream of being burnt alive a lot, too. Last time I check, a lot of people got burnt alive, but I wasn't one of them."

"That wasn't funny."

"I wasn't trying to be funny."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Um… Is it just me, or it is too quiet here?" Lissa looks around, worryingly. "Where did all the birds go?"

"Maybe they all went to sleep?" Scrooge hurls the torches around to take a better look at the surrounding, but there was nothing but trees.

"No…" Chrom frowns. "Something is wrong here…"

"Define 'something'." Lissa grows even more worried.

"I'm not sure… Argh!"

The whole forest starts to shake, more and more furiously as each second passes. The ground beneath also starts to crack like crazy, and a large piece of land got knocked off into the sky. The lava from underground crawls its way onto the ground, shooting off in every direction, setting the whole forest ablaze.

"Eeeek! Chrom!" Lissa falls into Chrom's lap and hugs him tightly. "What is this madness?! What is going on!?"

"Less talking, more running!" Scrooge yells. "This place isn't safe, guys. Let's run to the forest's entrance, quick!"

"Yes, let's!" Chrom takes Lissa's hand, hold it tightly and quickly runs off after Scrooge.

As the three of them were running, the lavas falls off from the sky more and more rapidly, there's nowhere in the forest that hasn't got caught up in the fire yet, the whole forest is now a giant picture painted with but a single crimson flame color.

"Great! I spoke way too soon! Gah!" The ground beneath Scrooge cracked, and he fall face flat into the ground. Not stopping at just that, the ground continues to crack even more and a big hole slowly formed. Scrooge would have fell right into the hole and perished right then and there, but thankfully, Chrom was fast enough to catch him before he completely disappear down into the hole.

"Alright, all together now!" Chrom and Lissa pull Scrooge up to the ground.

The three of them fall to the ground, trying to catch their breath.

"… Now what?" Chrom looks at the big gaping hole that now stands between them and the entrance. The hold was very big, sure, but it doesn't pose much of a problem for Chrom who has been training for most of his life. But for Lissa and Scrooge, jumping over the hole isn't on the top of their 'safe things to do right now'.

"What else? Let's look for another way." Scrooge quickly gets up from the ground. "Wait… Over there, is that…"

"Frederick and Vaike!" Lissa jumps up in joy.

"Milord! Milady! Are you hurt?" Frederick rushes toward the three, but stops right in front of the hole.

"No need to fear! The Vaike is here! Wait, what is this big gaping hole doing here?!"

"Great!" Scrooge shouts. "Vaike! Use your axe and cut off that tree next to you! We'll use that as a bridge to go over the hole. Quickly! Before the hole got any bigger!"

"Ah, alright!" Vaike immediately goes over the tree and cut it down with ease.

Not wasting any time, Scrooge urges Chrom and Lissa to go over the tree. Lissa goes over first without any problem. Quickly follow right after is Chrom, also with no problem. But when Scrooge tries to get over to the other side, the whole ground shakes up once more and knocks him off balance.

"GAH!" Scrooge yells. Thankfully, Frederick manages to spear his silver lance through Scrooge's big hood and saves his life just in time.

"Phew…" Frederick exhales in relief, and then he slowly pulls Scrooge up from the hole.

"You're lucky, Scrooge." Lissa giggles. "I almost thought that you wouldn't make it."

"Yeah, thanks… It was Frederick that saved my life, not luck." Scrooge scowls. "Anyway, let's get out of her, fast!"

No more words, the group immediately gets out of the forest as fast as they can.

…

"Gods, that was madness…" Chrom exhales in relief. "I hope it's all over though."

"Yes, me too- Hm?" Lissa looks up into the sky, she looks like something is about to fall out of the sky or something. "Everyone, what IS that?!"

Or maybe, something really was going to fall out of the sky…

* * *

_Sanjima: Hey there, guys. Thank you for finishing chapter 2. You know, I've always wonder if the whole 'the ground got shoot upward and magma spilling everywhere' were a conditionfor the Risen to appear or something, since it only happen once in chapter 1 in the game, and never so much got mention again afterward. But, oh well... It was dramatic and interesting so I keep it in. Please do look forward to the next chapter._


	3. A new threat arises

**Chapter 3: A new threat arises**

Up in the sky, the air begins to get distorted and twisted. Then BOOM! A giant magic circle appears in the sky. And right after that, in the middle of the magic circle, another circle appears, though it somewhat resembles some kind of blue bug eye with a lot of crystals sticking out of it to Scrooge. And from that blue bug eye, something crawls its way out, something resembles that of a human, but with red eyes and dark tainted skin… One, then two, then three, then ten, and more still coming… They crawl out of the bug eye then fall off from the sky and down to the ground.

"Okay, note to self… Ylisse's specialty: Frequent earthquakes with lavas spewing everywhere, and men falling off the sky." Scrooge says, completely monotone.

"NO! These things aren't common in Ylisse, I can assure you that!" Chrom instantly shoots down Scrooge's remark.

"Well, that's weird…" Scrooge tilts his head.

"But… Gods, what are those-things?" Frederick cringes.

"Even Frederick is afraid!" Scrooge comments with his usual monotone voice, but it is accompanied by a small giggle for some reasons.

Those creatures slowly get up on their feet, and they all turn their attention toward the group. Those creatures slowly step forward a few steps, which makes it easier to see that they are all armed themselves, some have axes, while some have swords.

"Something tells me that ain't a good sign." Vaike grips the handle of his axe tightly.

"Ryaaargh!" One of the creature roars and charges full speed at the group, other creatures quickly follow right after that one.

"Heh, I can't ask for more!" Vaike swipes his nose then rushes right at the creatures. "COME GET SOME!"

"Wait, Vaike! Gah! That blockhead!" Chrom tries to stop Vaike, but his words fell on deaf ears, so he had no other choice but to charges in to help so Vaike won't get himself killed.

"Milord!" Frederick intends to charge in, too. But some of the creatures manage to slip off Chrom and Vaike, and is charging right toward Frederick himself.

With his silver lance in hands, Frederick valiantly takes on the creatures. But there was just too many of them, Frederick spear down one, and three more rush at him. Eventually, he too, got overwhelmed by the creatures.

"Guh! Scrooge!" Frederick calls out to Scrooge and throws him the bronze sword. "Protect the princess!"

Scrooge quickly catches the sword. But instead of getting into a battle stance to fight off the creatures, he…

"Sorry, but I'd rather run!"

… takes a grasp of Lissa's hand, turns around and run away as fast as his legs allow. Some of the creatures, five of them at best, quickly give chase.

One of the creatures almost catches up to Scrooge and Lissa. Scrooge pushes Lissa forward, then curls his body into a circle and rolls forward. When his back touches the ground, he quickly uses the bronze sword to slashes across the leg of the creature. Then, taking advantages of the rotation, Scrooge immediately balance him on the ground and continue with his running.

"That would slow him down." Say Scrooge.

But, oh, could he ever be more wrong… The creature didn't feel so much a tiny fragment of pain, it continues to give chase like the wound on its leg is nothing more than a bit from a mosquito. But while it may not feel pain, it sure can shows anger. As unlike earlier where it just gives chase without doing anything else, this time, it is giving chase while twirling its axe around like crazy.

"Aahh!" Lissa yells.

"To the campsite, quick!" Scrooge tells Lissa.

Lissa doesn't know what Scrooge intend to do when they arrive at the campsite, but it's not like she has any idea on where to run to or what to do anyway. So, to the campsite, they run.

They run and run, and finally they see the campsite ahead.

"There… The campsite… What do we do now?" Lissa tries to squeeze out the words as she tries not to run out of breathe.

"Run straight ahead… Turn right when you see a tree… Continue straight ahead… Until you see the bushes… Then jump over the bushes…" The same goes for Scrooge.

"What?"

"Just do it!"

What does Scrooge want when he order Lissa to do that? Lissa doesn't know, but seeing little choice she has, she decided to trust in Scrooge and do exactly as he said.

As for Scrooge, instead of running together with Lissa, he runs towards the hoe, or rather, the bag he left at the campsite, quickly take out one of the torches, set it on fire, and kicks the campfire into the face of the creature chasing him while he's at that. Then finally, runs off after Lissa.

When he sees the bushes, Scrooge also jumps over the bushes like he told Lissa. The creatures chasing after them though, don't jump over the bushes, and are immediately greeted by the pitfall trap that Scrooge used to capture the wild boar earlier today. Wasting not even a single second, Scrooge presses the torch into the face of the creatures, setting them up aflame like a living torch. The creature letting out their screams, be they screams of anguish or screams or terror, before finally reduced to mere ashes.

"Phew…" The both of them sigh in relief.

"I'm worried about my brother and others…" Lissa says, worryingly. "S-Should we go back to them?"

"No." Scrooge immediately shoots down Lissa's suggestion. "They are much better fighter than you and me. If we go back, we would only be a hindrance to them. Let's stay here for the mo…"

"Ryaaargh!"

A creature jumps out of the bushes and attack the two. It was such a surprising attack that the only thing sensible enough to comes out of the mouths of both Scrooge and Lissa is a big "Wha?!". Thankfully, Scrooge instinctively pushes Lissa out of the way in time and takes the axe in her place.

"Urghk!" Scrooge got knocked away. He falls to the ground and just lies there, unmoving.

"SCROOGE!" Lissa screams.

After finishing with Scrooge, the creature glances over to Lissa and screams at her.

"Eeekk!" Lissa slowly crawls away while waving her staff at the creature. "Stay away from me! STAY AWAY FROM ME!"

"Ryaaargh!" The creature swings its axe over its head…

"Kyyaa!"

… and strikes down with all its might.

CLANK!

The axe didn't hit Lissa's head, it hit into something hard, it hit into another weapon! Someone just jumps in and saves Lissa in time.

Lissa slowly opens her eyes to look at whoever just saved her. In front of her, stands a masked man in blue, with his back facing the creature, holding his sword horizontally along his back to block the creature's axe. This may be a weird thing to say since he is wearing a mask, but his face doesn't look so good.

"Hng… Ahh!" The masked man summons up all of his might to pushes the axe away and immediately turn around and slashes the creature, from its right shoulder all the way down to its left waist. The creature stumbles backward a few steps before falling down to the ground and evaporated into thin air.

"Phew…" The masked man exhales in relief. He thinks that the danger is over now…

"Ryaaargh!"

He was wrong…

Another one of the creatures jumps out of nowhere, and attacks him. The creature furiously assault him left and right without stop. The masked man eventually got overwhelmed, and got down on one knee. The creature swings its axe high in the air for one final smash… and got its head speared by a two-headed javelin. The one responsible for the javelin was one of the two knights of the Shepherds, the female red knight, Sully.

"Princess, are you okay?!" Sully gallops her steed towards Lissa.

"I-I'm fine..." Lissa swipes off the sweat on her forehead. "Thanks to you and this kind stranger… Ah!"

Lissa rushes over to Scrooge. "Scrooge! Scrooge!" Not thinking straight, Lissa yells out his name as she holds up his body.

"Urgh…" Scrooge moans. "Damn! That hurts like hell!"

"Scrooge! You're alive!" Lissa jumps into Scrooge's lap and hugs him tightly. "B-But how…? I thought you were really done for…"

"Get-get off of me first…" Scrooge whimpers.

"Ah oh… I'm sorry!" Lissa gets off Scrooge, embarrassingly.

Scrooge clumsily gets up from the ground and wipes off the dirt on his clothes. Only then does Lissa notice that there was no blood on Scrooge's clothe, there was no wound on his body at all! Turns out, Scrooge was wearing leather armor beneath his shirt, beneath his long coat! Even though it did save Scrooge's life, the armor itself didn't survive the blow, it is now in complete tatter, the same goes for Scrooge's shirt.

"And who the heck are you?" Sully points the tip of her javelin at Scrooge.

"That's my question here!" Scrooge rubs his head.

"Alright now, let me do the introduction here." Lissa gets in between Sully and Scrooge. "This here is Sully, a proud knight and valuable member of the Shepherds. Sully, this here is Scrooge, he just helped escape those… things earlier and almost lost his life doing so."

"Hm…" Sully gives Scrooge a quick glare before putting away her javelin, not saying anything more. Likewise, Scrooge just gives a quick bow to her without saying anything.

"And that… one in blue?" Scrooge looks over to the masked man.

"…" The masked man doesn't answer. Or rather, he's too tired to be able to answer, as he's breathing pretty intensely.

"Um… Thanks for saving my life earlier." Lissa thank the masked man. "My name is Lissa. Might I ask yours?"

"… Isn't there something else you should be worried about?" The masked man looks elsewhere.

"… Huh?" Lissa doesn't understand what the masked man was referring to.

"Ah, that's right! Where's captain Chrom? And Frederick, and Vaike? Aren't they with you, princess?" Sully asks.

"Chrom!" Lissa immediately rushes back to the forest, with Sully and the masked man follow right after her.

"Urgh…" Scrooge also reluctantly runs after Lissa, still rubbing his head.

…

You know… I just realized this, but why didn't that female knight give a ride to Lissa? Wouldn't that save a lot more time instead of following someone on foot with a horse?

… Was what just ran through Scrooge's mind as he and the others arrive at the forest entrance, just to see that the battle there has already ended.

"Wah hah ha! I am invincible!" Vaike laughs rapturously. "Teach alone cut down 9 of those nasty things! Ain't that awesome!?"

"Vaike, please… I cut down 10 ten of those things!" Chrom puffs up his chest.

"That's because you had Frederick helped you! Again!" Vaike objects.

"He only jumps in when I already cut down 9 of them! And for the record, I dealt the final blown to the tenth one." Chrom counterattacks.

"…" The masked man keeps staring at the two quarreling, whether he is fascinated from the sight or feels annoyed about it, no one knows.

"Ahem… Hello?" Lissa turns the attention to her. "We've been here for while already."

"Oh, Lissa? And Scrooge!" Chrom finally notices them. "And… Sully? And who's the one with mask?"

"… I-I… you…" The masked man stutters. The mask makes it hard to see, but it seems he is struggling to find the right word to say or something.

"Yes?" Chrom raises an eyebrow.

"Um…" The masked man clears his throat. "Y-you may call me Marth."

"Marth? After the heroic king of old?" Chrom looks surprised. He then takes a look at the masked man from top to bottom.

"E-enough about me!" The masked man suddenly yells. "What you saw tonight is but a prelude. Unless you reform your way, the wheel of fate will once again turns for the worse. You have been warned."

After saying so, the masked man ran off.

"Weird one…" Chrom scratches his head.

"In more ways than one…" Scrooge adds more.

"So… Anybody mind telling me what the heck just happened?" Sully speaks up.

"Well, actually…" Chrom and Lissa start telling the whole thing, about the earthquake, the lavas shooting off everywhere, the strange humanoid creatures that fall down from the sky and started attacking them for no reason. Lissa also filled in for Chrom how Scrooge and the masked man saved her life.

"Well, I'll be damned!" Sully spits onto the ground. "With all these crazy things happening, ya would think it's the end of the world or something."

"Worrying about it'll not do us any good." Frederick says. "For now, let's just head back to the capital. I'm concerned about the safety there."

"But it's still dead of the night! I want to go back to sleep!" Vaike grumbles.

"Yes, let's go back to sleep in the middle of a giant blazing forest, shall we…" Scrooge says, with monotone.

"Er-On second thought, let's head back to Ylisstol..."

"Urgh…" Sully shakes her head in annoyance. "Get on the horse, Vaike. I'll give you a ride."

"Speaking of horses. Where did mine go?" Chrom looks around the place.

"Ah, maybe your horse is the one that led me to the princess?" Sully says. "If so, then follow me. I'll lead you back to it."

"Alright, let's go now, everyone." Chrom then turns to Scrooge. "I trust that you'll also join us?"

"…" Scrooge doesn't answer, he seems to be in deep thought.

"Scrooge? Anybody home?" Chrom calls out to him again.

"… Alright…"

"Is something bugging you? You're being awfully quiet."

"… Nope."

"Honestly?"

"… Just thinking that I need a new clothe is all…" Scrooge shrugs.

"That's all?" Chrom laughs. "Then when we arrive at Ylisstol, the capital of our Halidom, I'll order the capital's finest tailor to sew a brand new outfit. How's that?"

"Don't mind if I do." Scrooge breaks into a smile.

"Alrighty then. Shall we go?." Chrom pats Scrooge on the back, the two then go join with the others.

…

* * *

_Sanjima: Hello, guys, thank you for finishing chapter 3. There's a few things I'd like to share redgarding this chapter. First, the scene where Scrooge slash the leg of the Risen, I based it on an old saying in my country that can be translated along the line as "To kill your enemy, kill his horse first", which means that the surest way to defeat an enemy is to destroy his mobility, I hope that scene turns out alright and wasn't too forced. Second, as hilarious as Virion's appearance in the game was, I can't help but find it to be... out of place, I mean... he just happened to take a stroll in the dead of the night in the middle of nowhere and happened to caught sight of Sully somewhere and decided to stalk her, on foot, while Sully is on horse? Okay... Enough of that already, please look forward to the next chapter in the next few days, everyone._


	4. The Shepherds

**Chapter 4: The Shepherds.**

The day after, Chrom led Scrooge to visit the Shepherd's garrison. Since the garrison is situated right outside of the western gate of Ylisstol, he might as well show Scrooge the way around the garrison a little bit, thought Chrom.

Scrooge wasn't too fond of the idea at first, but Lissa urged him too much that he had to eventually agree with the visiting. Even Frederick himself didn't approve of bringing a stranger into the Shepherd's garrison, but since it was the wish of his superiors, he didn't object.

…

"Tada! Here we are! The Shepherd's garrison." Lissa barges in. "Go on, make yourself at home, Scrooge."

Scrooge steps into the garrison and takes a quick look around. It was quite small for a garrison, with a bunch of sand bags, barrels, weapons and armors scattering about here and there, with a small set of desks and chairs place in the middle of the garrison for the paper works. It doesn't look like an actual garrison, but rather a big house with random military objects as furniture. Scrooge decides to walk around to see if there's more to the garrison.

"Please excuse me, milord. I'll take the steeds away to the table to let them get some rest." Frederick bows down to Chrom, then takes his and Chrom's steed and goes away.

"S'cuse me, Chrom. But my steed also need some rest, so I'll be going with Frederick. See ya later." Sully also leads her steed away after Frederick.

"Hng…" Vaike sketches his arms. "Man, I'm beat. I'll go take a nap for now. We'll have our daily duel later today, Chrom…"

"Yes, I'm looking forward to it." Chrom pats Vaike on the back and steps into the garrison. "It was only a day, but boy, I sure miss the air around here…"

THUD!

"Whoa! That sounds painful… Was that you, Sumia?" Chrom quickly run over to where the sound came from and saw Sumia, with her face plant on the floor. "Sumia! Are you alright? … Those boots of yours again?" Chrom quickly helps Sumia stand up.

"No! I mean, yes! I mean… Ahh…" Sumia sighs.

"If I get a coin every time you fall flats onto the ground like that, I bet I can buy the biggest tailor shop in Ylisse. It's a mystery in and of itself." He frowns.

"I-I'm sorry, captain Chrom…" Sumia bows to Chrom. "I-It's just that I got too excited upon hearing your return…"

"How? I've just stepped into the garrison mere seconds ago." Chrom is surprised.

"It's thanks to this…" Sumia takes out a small flower.

"Not those flower fortune things again?"

"Why do you sound so disappointed? I'll let you know that thanks to this flower fortune that I know you were going to return today, right this hour, this minute. I even know that you ate wild boar meat last night, and bear meat the night before." Sumia happily shares the knowledge she gains from the flower fortune.

"That's-surprisingly accurate… Terrifyingly perhaps…" Chrom can't help but be amazed (scared?) about the effective of flower fortune.

"Well, you see…" Sumia continues with her talk about flower fortune.

…

"… They've been at it for quite a while already." Scrooge, who was watching Chrom and Lissa together with Lissa from behind one of the sand bags, grows impatient.

" Sheesh… Be quiet, Scrooge. We're getting to the good part." Lissa peek out from the sand bag to get a clearer view at Chrom and Sumia.

"What's so good about this whole peeping thing?" Scrooge tilts his head.

"Can't you see it? They are about to propose to each other!"

"Huh?"

"You see, Sumia there got the hots for my brother for the longest time, and my brother has been looking out for her more _tenderly_ than other members of the Shepherds, a lot more tenderly, I'd say. They are so totally in love with each other!" Lissa points at Chrom and Lissa.

"…"

"But because Sumia but an inexperienced recruit, while my brother is a prince of the Halidom of Ylisse, their difference is just way too big, so they had no choice but to stay silent and bury love deep within their hearts." Lissa starts to make weird gestures with her hands. "But day by day, their love just keep growing and growing and growing. And finally, comes today, whence they can no longer bare the pain of being able to express their love, they have decided to tear down all the class barrier and show their true love to one another. Any moment now, they'll embrace each other and, and… Kyaaa!"

"… I think I'll pretend I didn't hear anything…" Scrooge facepalm.

"Aw, you're no fun at all." Lissa pouts at Scrooge. "At least comment about the story, is it romantic enough? Or does it lack twists? Should I have added the part where the two family furiously protest the relationship between the two and they have to marry in secret?"

"Sorry, I'm more into epic tales than romantic stories…"

"Well then, if I ever have a son, I'll tell him to write epic tales about legendary heroes then."

"…"

"…"

"Heh… Hahaha!"

"Hee hee hee hee!"

Both Scrooge and Lissa break out into laughter.

"Ah… I'm glad…" Lissa wipes tears from the corner of her eyes from laughing.

"For what?" Scrooge tilts his head.

"Well, because at first you didn't talk to me much. I don't think you even bothered listening to me at all. But now I actually have a real conversation with you, I realize that you're just shy." Lissa smiles.

"T-that's not it…" Scrooge looks away, blushing.

"Aw, you're blushing!" Lissa continue teasing Scrooge.

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yes, you are."

"Ahem…"

"Gah! Chrom!" Lissa freaks out at the sight of Chrom standing right next to her since who knows how long.

"Don't you "Gah!" me. What are you two doing hiding behind the sandbag?" Chrom looks at the Lissa and Scrooge with a questionable look in his eye.

"We aren't doing anything suspicious. We most definitely weren't hiding here to spy on you flirting with that brown-haired girl standing right next you." Scrooge quickly denies, with questionable effort.

"F-flirting?!" Chrom blushes, though his face is nowhere as red as Sumia's. "I-I'm not… Hey! You're the one flirting with my little sister!"

"Um, Captain…" Sumia calls out to Chrom. "Who is this person?"

"Oh, right. Let me introduce you guys." Chrom says. "Sumia, this is Scrooge, he is the one who helped my sister last night that I just told you about. Scrooge, this is Sumia, one of the members of the Shepherds, also the newest and least experienced."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Scrooge." Sumia holds her hand out to Scrooge.

"…" Scrooge bows to Sumia.

"Um, I hope we can be good friends." Sumia withdraws her hand, somewhat disappointed.

"…" Scrooge nods, this action actually made Sumia herself nervous.

"See, this just confirms my theory that you're just shy." Lissa grins.

"Well, excuse me, Princess!"

"Anyway, did you take a look around the garrison? Or should I show you around, Scrooge?" Chrom asks.

"Thanks, but I've finished my tour." Scrooge answers with a somewhat bored look. "The training ground is nice and all, but the interiors here… Well, it leaves something to be desire. I reckon this sheep tending business wasn't formed until recently?"

"Can you stop with the sheep, please…" Chrom shakes his head. "But how did you figure out that the Shepherds were only formed recently? I don't remember telling you that."

"First, the mess you called the interior here is a dead give away. Since the professionals, be they actual armies, mercenaries or vigilantes whatever, usually has very strict rules with tidiness, because they always have to be prepared to move out as soon as the mission is given. In short, you are not the professionals…"

"It's that obvious?" Chrom frowns.

"… Second, out there in the training ground are dummies for practice and a quite a number of broken weapons…"

"What's wrong with dummies and broken weapons?" Chrom asks.

"… Seriously?" Scrooge raises an eyebrow. "Explain to me how to break weapons while training with wooden dummies."

"Ah, I'm sorry! That was my fault! I'm such a klutz, I'm sorry…" Sumia apologizes profusely.

"Peace, Sumia." Chrom tries to calm Sumia down, then continue with his conversation with Scrooge. "I still don't understand, weapons break all the time, that isn't a solid proof if you ask me."

"… Third, if you've been in the business long enough, then you wouldn't leave broken weapons lying around so carelessly like that." Scrooge stares into Chrom's eyes. "As coming in contact with rusty steel can easily lead infected wounds that cause dangerous diseases such as tetanus…"

"I-I didn't know that…" Chrom looks troubled. "Thank you for telling me, Scrooge."

"… And fourth, you've just told me that the Shepherds is still young, by not denying my claim…" Scrooge continues.

"T-That's… Urgh… You got me there. Alright, I'll admit… The Shepherds was only founded just weeks ago, due to the rising problems of local bandits and overall restless amongst the people." Chrom scratches his head. "You sure know a lot for someone who has no idea what Ylisse is…"

"Heh… Actually, I don't." Scrooge smirks.

"Say what now?" Lissa says. She's been pretty quiet until now to enjoy Scrooge messing with Chrom, she just has to react to what Scrooge just said that seemingly came out of nowhere.

"I've never been to a real garrison before in my life, how would I know what it looks like?" Scrooge says, nonchalantly. "Everything I've just said is all made up just now. Well, not the one with tetanus though…"

"T-that was amazing!" Sumia claps her hands repeatedly. "You were saying it so convincing that you had us all fooled. Not anyone can do that."

Scrooge looks at her for a second, though 'glares at her' would be a more appropriate term. Sumia grows somewhat uneasy seeing Scrooge did so, but Lissa reassures her, saying "Don't worry, Sumia. Scrooge's just shy, is all. He meant no harm, I can assure you that."

"I question your sense of humor sometime, Scrooge." Chrom sighs. "I thought you were seriously criticizing me for being a bad leader or something."

"My apology." Scrooge says. "I just wanted to confirm something."

"And what is it?" Chrom asks.

"I thought it was weird that a prince and a princess would personally go fight bandits with only 2 men coming with them. Is this K-Halidom that short of military strength?"

"Hm…" Chrom appears to be uncomfortable with Scrooge question.

"You don't have to answer me if you don't want to."

"No, it's not that I don't want to or anything, it's just that..." Chrom takes a deep breath before continuing. "Around 20 years ago, when my father was still the Exalt, the ruler of Ylisse that is, he waged war against Plegia. However, after years of fighting back and forth, the number of soldiers in our army started to dwindle down, so he drafted a lot of peasants into the army to make up for the shortage of number, despite them having no training at all. As the result, many fields were left untended, resources were quickly drained, leading to a widespread of famine, plague and poverty across the Halidom…"

"…"

"… My father was also a victim of the plague at the time. Leaving my sister Emmeryn, who was only 10 at the time, to lead the Halidom. Unlike my father, Emmeryn aspired to be a benevolence Exalt, so as soon as she was given the title of Exalt, she immediately reformed the military laws and discharged the soldiers back to their rightful place on the fields, leaving only the Pegasus Knight Squad to guard the borders, and a small band of knight to protect the capital. Most of the members of the Shepherds are my most trusted friends amongst the knighthood."

"… You're too honest, Chrom." Scrooge stares at Chrom. "Awfully so, I may say…"

…

Around the same time, at the stable outside of the garrison, Frederick and Sully are taking care of their horses.

"Our captain seems to have taken a liking to that traveler, huh?" Sully strikes up a conversation while brushing her horse's hair.

"It does seem so…" Frederick replies while taking some water for his horse to drink. "But I'm not too fond of him."

"Why?" Sully asks. "He seems like a decent guy to me."

"His whole insolence attitude towards the prince and the princess is completely unacceptable. You should have been there when we first met him, how he looked at the prince and us like we're some kinds of clowns…" Frederick grumbles.

"Oh come now, I'm sure anyone who first meets a royalty in person for the first time would all do that." Sully shrugs off Frederick's comments about Scrooge.

"That is one thing, but it's his whole behavior that makes me question him…" Frederick continues. "He claimed to not know anything about Ylisse and Plegia, yet he known the strain relationship we're having, he even knew about the bandit's attack on Southtown beforehand. He claimed to not be able to fight, yet he knows how to handle a sword and an effective way to injure and slow down the enemy without relying too much on strength. He claimed to be a mere traveler, yet he has leather armor hidden beneath his cloak. He claimed to be heading west, yet he agreed to visit the Shepherds' garrison…"

"You mean…"

"Yes, I am suspecting him of being a Plegian spy!"

...

* * *

_Sanjima: Hello everyone, thank you for finishing this chapter, too. This chapter is the shortest out of all the chapters so far, since there's only conversations and no fighting. As noted above, I made up most of the reasons so I don't know if they are true or not, I hope that it at least sound plausible to you guys (lol). And, er, if it's possible, can someone give a review on how I am doing? Like, whether the story-telling is interesting or not, is the grammar and phrasing okay, stuff like that... I'd really like to improve my writing so please help me out if you can. So, see you again in the next chapter, guys.  
_


	5. The Exalt

**Chapter 5: The Exalt**

"Um…"

"Here, try this on, Scrooge! Oh, this shirt here looks nice, too!"

"Um…"

As promised, Chrom led Scrooge to the biggest tailor shop in the capital to buy him a new shirt. But, there is a small problem here: Lissa being Lissa…

"Oh, how about this pink one? Hey Scrooge, do you prefer pink or yellow?"

"THIS ONE! This white one over here!" Scrooge screams at Chrom, grabs the nearest white shirt he can see and run towards the counter as fast as he can. "Chrom, pay the check, quick! I beg of you!"

"Gotcha! Here's the money, shopkeeper. Keep the change" Chrom instantly put the coins on the counter and makes a tactical withdraw out of the shop together with Scrooge.

"Wa-Chrom! Scrooge!" Lissa was too late, Chrom and Scrooge have already run out of the store…

…

Finished with the shopping, Chrom, Lissa, Scrooge and Frederick then decided go around the capital, enjoying the beauty of the architecture and the bustling of the people living there. It was fun and enjoyable walk for Chrom and Scrooge, but maybe Lissa thinks otherwise…

"Come on, Lissa. Stop pouting like that…" Chrom pets Lissa on the head.

"Boo…" Lissa pouts. "You guys didn't have to do it like that, you jerks." She seems to be still mad about Chrom and Scrooge's 'tactical retreat' from earlier.

"Yes, sadly I agree with the milady, milord." Frederick nods, understandingly. "Running out of the shop so hastily like that really made me thought you were shoplifting, milord. It almost gave me a heart attack…"

"Not you too, Frederick?" Chrom smiles wryly.

"… I'm afraid a certain someone is having a bad influence on you, milord." Frederick glares over to Scrooge.

"What?" Scrooge looks back at Frederick, funnily. "If looks could kill then I'm sure you just murdered me, Frederick." Scrooge nags at him.

"Never mind…" Frederick grumbles.

"Hey, Chrom." Lissa tugs Chrom's cape. "If you want me to feel better, than why don't you go buy me some pie?"

"Pie, huh?" Chom thinks for moment then turns to ask Scrooge. "Hey, Scrooge. Do you want some, too?"

"Sure, why not." Scrooge shrugs. "We haven't had anything to eat since last night after all. Frederick?"

"Thank you, but I have to decline the offer." Frederick looks away from Scrooge. "… I'm not hungry."

"… Really now?" Scrooge stares at Frederick.

"Yes, I ate too much last night that I'm still full right now…" Frederick grumbles. "And can you please stop staring at me like that?" He clearly doesn't life Scrooge one bit.

Chrom, Lissa, Frederick and Scrooge then head to a nearby pie shop. In front of the shop, they see a small group of young boys bickering at each other. Seeing this, Scrooge immediately runs toward the children.

"Whoa there, little guys. Stop fighting like that." Scrooge stops the boys from doing anything further than just bickering. "Mind telling what the problem here is?"

"He ruined my pie!" One of the boys points at the one in front of him with a crushed pie lying right next his feet.

"It was your fault for dropping the pie, not me!" The accused boy shouts back.

"Hey, how is it his fault? You're the one who bumped into him and made him drop the pie!" Another boy yells, and jumps at the accused boy but got stopped by Scrooge.

"I said stop this bickering already, little guys! Whoa there! Let go of my hoe!" Scrooge tries his best to calm down the boys, but it seems his best isn't enough. They just keep on bickering like he wasn't even there.

"Give me back my pie, you… Huh?" One of the boys stops and looks elsewhere. "Is that… Hey, guys! It's the exalt! It's the exalt over there! Let's all go greet her, guys!"

All of the boys immediately stop and run toward one direction, toward the blond maiden in green and yellow robe. Their faces no longer show the anger and frustration they had earlier, instead smiles bloom on their faces as they warmly greet the woman. And not just the children, other people in the area also run to the woman and greet her, too. In fact, it actually seems like the blond maiden is the centre of everyone there on the street. Some even offer her flowers and fruits.

Not understanding what just happened, Scrooge just stands there, dumbfounded.

Then, much to his surprise, Chrom and Lissa also run toward the woman, Lissa even jumps at the woman and hugs her tightly. "Oh, sister. Ee hee hee. It has only been 3 days, but I miss you so much."

"Wait… Did I just hear that right?" Scrooge blurts out loud.

"Yes, she is lord Chrom and lady Lissa's beloved sister, the exalt, Emmeryn." Frederick says. "The exalt is our symbol of peace-Ylisse's most precious treasure. She loves the people and the people love her. It is all thanks to her that we could move on and live peacefully after all the dreadful things we've been through under the rule of the last exalt…"

"…" Scrooge looks at Emmeryn intently. "… She must really be a very kind ruler if even _you_ can't help but praise her in front of _me_, eh?"

"Yes, we are truly blessed to be able to serve such a benevolent exalt…" A small smile blooms on Frederick face, a sight which Scrooge hasn't seen until now.

"…" Scrooge continues observing Emmeryn and the people around her. He sees them all talking and laughing like everyone is a friend. There's absolutely no forcing or acting here, everything all seems so genuine and sincere, especially Emmeryn's smile. Maybe it was magic or maybe it was by some unexplainable reason, but somehow it seems that her gentle smile can soothe people's souls and chase away their sadness…

"Or so it seems…" Scrooge mutters to himself.

"Did you say something?" Frederick asks Scrooge.

"… Nothing." Scrooge answers. Seeing as there's nothing else to do there, he turns around, sighs and walks away, muttering to himself. "S-S-Scrooge withdraws coolly."

"Wait. You're leaving?" Frederick stops him.

"Yes, I was tagging along with Chrom for the pie, but now that he's too busy with his sister, there's nothing else for me to do here. Tell him goodbye for me, 'kay?" Scrooge slightly waves goodbye to Frederick and takes another step…

"Tell him that yourself, Scrooge." … and got halted by Chrom himself.

"Urgh…" Scrooge sighs and reluctantly turns around to face Chrom, and Lissa, and Emmeryn…

"And while you at it, why not introduce yourself to my sister, too?" Lissa grins.

"Urgh…" Scrooge scowls for split second before forcing a smile on his face and bows down to Emmeryn. "…Your Grace."

"Please, lift your face. There's no need for formality between us." Emmeryn holds her hand out to lift Scrooge's face up.

"Y-yes, Your Grace!" Scrooge immediately straighten himself up, he looks awfully tensed.

"Don't be so tense like that just because she's the exalt, Scrooge." Chrom laughs. "She's not someone who cares about social class, relax."

"Or are you being so tensed for a different reason?" Lissa teases Scrooge, he is not amused.

"So your name is Scrooge, correct?" Emmeryn gently smiles. "It seems my brother and sister has taken a liking to you."

"Of course." Chrom says. "Scrooge here is the one who saved… Bwh!"

Scrooge quickly covers Chrom's mouth before he can say anything further.

"You idi… Think about what would happen if you mention 'those things' in front of all these people." Scrooge whispers into Chrom's ears.

"Oh my…" Emmeryn laughs at the sight. "I see you two are already this close."

"Scrooge, I didn't know you were like that…" Lissa slowly takes a step away from Scrooge.

"No, this is not…" Scrooge let go of Chrom, then he looks over to Frederick. "Frede…"

"Deny!"

"WHAT ARE YOU DENYING?!"

…

Much later… Frederick finally figured out what Scrooge wanted to say through his very roundabout way of talking, which Lissa somehow translated to "Don't do it out in the open like this, go get a room."

… Or something like that… Details are better left to the imagination…

Let's just say that Scrooge somehow managed to get his point across, and everyone somehow all came to the conclusion that it was best that they go to the palace for further discussion. Scrooge is not amused with the development…

…

"… I question the logic behind this…" Scrooge sighs.

"Now, what were you going say earlier, Chrom?" Emmeryn asks.

"Let me start from the beginning first." Chrom says. "Yesterday, I and Lissa and Frederick were supposed to go fight off the brigands at Southtown…"

"Yes, Sumia informed me just shortly after you left." Emmeryn nods.

"And much to our surprise, Scrooge here has already put an end to the brigands together with the townsfolk when we arrived." Chrom says.

"It sounds as though Ylisse owes you a debt of gratitude, Scrooge." Emmeryn bows to Scrooge.

"No, Your Grace… H-he is just glorifying me, honest… It was actually the people at Southtown that did most of the work…" Scrooge awkwardly denies Chrom's claim.

"… And he also valiantly protected Lissa when encountered the Risen." Chrom continues.

"Risen?" Scrooge can't help but be notice the strange word Chrom just said.

"We need the name for the threat. We can't just go around calling it 'strange creatures'." Frederick puffs up his chest. "Also, I was the one who came up with the name."

"Yes, Risen…" Scrooge praises Frederick, monotonically. "The perfect name for things that _fall_ down from the sky."

"Risen, as in 'rise from the dead'! Gods…" Frederick loses it. "I-I mean… My apology, everyone." He immediately gains back his calmness and apologizes to his lord and ladies though.

"Is that so…" Scrooge is not very satisfied with the answer, but ultimately decided to drop the subject.

"So, what are these… Risen?" Emmeryn asks.

"Actually, I'm not really sure…" Chrom scratches his head, then he begins to tell Emmeryn everything that happened last night, much to her disbelief.

"T-This is troublesome news indeed…" Emmeryn sighs. "Never before had Ylisse face with such event… What would we do if more those Risen were to show up?"

"Your Grace…" The woman standing a few steps behind Emmeryin, who Scrooge assumes to be Emmeryn's bodyguard, speaks up. "Please allow me order my Pegasus Knight Squad to take immediate action. We'll go search every crook and cranny of Ylisse to eliminate all of those Risen of our land if we have to."

"Peace, Phila." Frederick says. "Your duty is to stay here with the exalt, and to protect her from all harm."

"Rest assured, Emm. If the Risen ever show up again, the Shepherds will defeat them just like we did last night!" Chrom reassures Emmeryn.

"I don't know about that…" Scrooge speaks up. "What if they appear at multiple places?"

"Well, that…" Chrom flusters. He didn't really put that much though into it.

"What if they don't appear just in Ylisse, but also in other nations, too?" Scrooge continues.

"What do you mean?" Frederick questions Scrooge, even though he seems to know where Scrooge is going with his 'what-if'.

"I don't know?" Scrooge tilts his head. "I'm just wondering if there is another nation out there besides Ylisse and Pleigia, since I'm so bad at geography."

"Well, there is a kingdom called Regna Ferox just north of Ylisse." Chrom thinks. "…Wait, are you telling me that we should go make an alliance with Regna Ferox?"

"Definitely not." Scrooge shrugs.

"I'll take that as a 'yes' then." Chrom sighs.

"But… To suddenly propose an alliance like this, would they so easily agree to it?" Emmeryn wonders.

"We wouldn't know until we try, right?" Chrom replies.

"You are indeed right, Chrom." Emmeryn smiles. "Then, as the one to lead the Halidom of Ylisse, it is only proper that I go and propose the alliance myself."

"No, Your Grace." Phila stops Emmeryn. "It would be too dangerous for you to leave the capital. What if something were to happen to you on the way?"

"But if I don't go meet the leader of Regna Ferox myself, then I'll not be able to convey my sincerity in the alliance, and that is completely unacceptable." Emmeryn objects.

"Peace, Emm." Chrom says. "I, too, think you don't have to go yourself."

"But…"

"Aren't we siblings?" Lissa winks at Emmeryn. She puffs up her chest and proudly proclaims. "Chrom and I go there is the same as you go there, Emm."

"That's right." Chrom smiles.

"Oh, Chrom, Lissa…" Emmeryn hugs her brother and sister tightly.

"Ee hee hee." Lissa seems to be delighted and hugs Emmeryn back tightly, too.

"Er, Emm. Aren't I a bit old for this hugging stuff." Chrom is not too thrilled about it, though.

"No matter how old you are, you are still always my little brother, Chrom." Emmeryn pets Chrom's head.

…

Later that day, when every problems with the brigands and Risen had been all reported to Emmeryn and other senior officials, Chrom, Lissa and Frederick accompany Scrooge to the western gate of Ylisstol

"Well then, I guess this is goodbye, eh?" Scrooge says one last goodbye to Chrom, Lissa and Frederick, right before he gets back to his journey to the west.

"You're really leaving? The Shepherds really could use someone of your intellect." Chrom asks Scrooge to join the Shepherds. His face looks very regretful.

"Thank you for the praise, Chrom. But I'm afraid I have to turn down the offer." Scrooge replies.

"Well, I'll not force you then." Chrom holds out his hand towards Scrooge, Scrooge takes his hand and they make a firm handshake. "Let's hope that we'll meet again someday."

"Yes, let's." Scrooge smiles at Chrom and then let go of his hand.

"It was only for three days, but I had fun." Lissa smiles at Scrooge. "Take care on the journey, 'kay?"

"Yes, thank you, Lissa. You take care, too." Scrooge says to Lissa, then he turns to Frederick and extends his hand. "Frederick?"

"Hm…" Frederick takes Scrooge's hand and they make a firm handshake.

"An alliance with other nations is good, right? After all, there aren't just Risen out there, right?"

"What are you…?" Frederick got caught off guard by what Scrooge just said.

Scrooge smiles at Frederick briefly before letting go of his hand. Though the smile doesn't seem to convey good will, there seems to be some sort of hidden intention behind that smile. Whatever that intention is, Frederick is not so sure…

So, Scrooge leaves. Chrom and Lissa keep waving goodbye at him until he is finally out of sight.

"Let's go back to the palace, Lissa, Frederick. We need to take a good rest for our journey to Regna Ferox tomorrow." Chrom says.

"…" Frederick seems to be in deep though.

"Frederick?" Seeing Frederick didn't respon to Chrom, Lissa calls out to him to check.

"… Yes, milord, milady. Let us go back to the palace." Frederick starts moving.

… Right now, what worry Frederick isn't to get some rest, what worry him is that last sentence Scrooge said to him. His mind keeps pondering about it as he walks together with his lord and lady.

"Hey, I just remember! Aren't we supposed to have some pies earlier?" Lissa turns to Chrom.

"Ah, that's right!" Chrom remembers. "So, shall we go get some now?" He pets his little sister.

"Yayifications!" Lissa jumps up with joy and hugs her big brother's arm.

The three continue to happily chat abour various things as they walk, unaware of the tragedy that will soon take place...


	6. At the Northroad

**Chapter 6: At the Northroad.**

The next day. The Shepherds make their way north, towards Regna Ferox. The expedition was going well without trouble and they are currently traversing on the road known as the Northroad, the only road that leads to the borderline with Regna Ferox. The Shepherds going on this expedition consist of Chrom as the leader, Frederick as second-in-command, Lissa, Frederick, Sully and…

"STAHL!" Sully yells. "Can't you hurry up and move your ass already? Stop dragging us to slow down with you."

"Er, please have mercy on me, Sully. My horse ran full speed to catch up with everyone, at least let it rest for a moment." From far behind the rest of the Shepherds, Stahl pleads.

"That's your own damn fault for being late!" Sully yells at Stahl again.

"B-But I just got notice about the expedition when I got back to the garrison this morning." Stahl flusters.

"Wait, how is that possible?" Frederick is confused. "Yesterday, I told Vaike to notice you about the… Vaike?" He turns his full attention to the suspect.

"*whistle*" Vaike feigns ignorance.

"Urgh…" Lissa feels like facepalming at Vaike. "I swear you'd forget your own name if you aren't constantly shouting it yourself!"

"Hey, I'm offended. You said it like I have the brain of a bird or something!"Teach here remembers everyone's name he has ever met!"

"Really now, then you tell me the name of the one that defeated you back when we just arrived at Southtown." Lissa says.

"Well, that's easy. He's, uhm, er… Hey, I don't remember ever being defeated? I am invincible!" Vaike evades the question.

"Yeah, right, Vaike… Quit your quibbling and just admit that you've forgotten. His name is Amund, by the way." Lissa shakes her head, sighing.

"Hey, how am I supposed to remember someone so trivial? Ask anyone out there if they remember who this Amund is!"

"Peace, you two. That's enough childish quarreling already." Chrom speaks up. "Let us stop and take a rest here for now. We still have a long way to go ahead of us."

So, the Shepherds decided to stop for a while and take a rest in the middle of an open field nearby. Frederick goes ahead to scout the surrounding. Lissa and Sully find a shade to sit and chat about various topics. Vaike goes to find another shade away from Lissa and Sully, and immediately takes a quick nap. Stahl follows after Vaike and intended to take a quick nap too, but Chrom approaches him and starts a conversation.

"Glad to have you with us, Stahl." Chrom sits down next to Stahl. "It's always reassuring to another friend by my side." He pats Stahl on the shoulders.

"Yes, milord…" Stahl yawns. "Too bad Miriel wasn't coming though, she said she was busy with her new experiments to go. She even dragged poor Ricken to help her with the experiments."

"Yeah, last time I went to see her, she was literally swimming in a sea of books…" Chrom sighs. "By the way, if Vaike forgot to tell you about the expedition to Regna Ferox, then how did you find out about it?" He asks.

"Sumia told me about it, milord." Stahl replies. "I also asked her why she didn't go with everyone else, which she just replied that she wasn't ready yet, like usual." He squints. "We Shepherds have been in action for quite a while now, and yet she still thinks that she'd only slow us down… I fear for her future, milord."

"Yes, her lack of confidence is worrisome indeed. Speaking of Sumia, I wonder if she is currently busy with her usual training…"

…

Meanwhile, at the Shepherd's garrison…

"There is no danger… There is danger… There is no danger… There is danger…"

Sumia is currently busy with her usual flower fortune.

"Oh… I ran out of flowers! What do I do? What do I do?" Sumia dithers. "Hm? … What is that thing in the sky?"

…

Further north of the Northroad, Frederick rides alone to scout the area ahead for his fellow Shepherds. He doesn't have to do it, even Chrom told him that he should find a shade and rest like everyone else, but Frederick still feels oblige to do so, for he is a fellow knight of House Ylisse, it is his duty to keep his lord and lady out of all harm. He is always on guard and always watches out for the safety of those around him. Even if there is only a small pebble on the road, he would still carefully sweep it aside of the main road so that no one would trip on it, that's how dedicated Frederick is, and also the reason the nickname "Frederick the Wary", a name which he wears with pride.

This time is no different, Frederick looks up even the slightest suspicious thing his eyes could see. He sees the bushes shaken, and thinks that there is an ambush, turns out it was only a wild rabbit. He sees a small black dot on the grass, and he thinks there's a trap hidden at that spot, turns out it was only a shadow of a flying bird in the sky. How he even comes to think that a bird's shadow is a trap is a mystery in its own right…

Frederick then goes around scouting for some time more. He sees nothing more suspicious and intended to go back to his lord. Then, something caught his attention, he sees a small group of people in the distance, sitting and leaning on each other, in the middle of a plain field without any shade of sort. His intuition tells him that there's something isn't quite right about that group of people, so he approaches them.

"Hey, you people over there!" He calls out to them, but there was no response. Annoyed by their lack of response, but Frederick still politely calls out them once more. "Excuse me, can you hear me?"

…Still no response.

Suspicious, Frederick gets nearer to them. Much to his horror, it wasn't a group of people leaning on each other, but a bunch of corpses piling on each other.

"Gods… What happened?" Frederick grips his silver lance in hands and carefully takes a look around, but aside from the pile of corpses, he sees nothing sort of suspicious. "…" Frederick then glances at the corpses one more time. Instinctively, he reaches one hand out to the corpses, and…

"Gwaaaaaar!" From the pile of corpses, a Risen jumps out and surprised him. With an iron axe in hands, the Risen attacks Frederick with all its might. Being caught off guard, Frederick wasn't able to react in time and almost got the axe bury into his head. Luckily for him, his steed jumps out of the way and saves its master's life just in time.

Quickly calming himself down, Frederick will himself and intended to take on the Risen himself, but then, more Risens appear and approach him from four sides.

Where did they come from?! Just seconds ago, there was not a single Risen visible, and then suddenly they appear out of nowhere and surround Frederick just like that.

Not taking chances, Frederick order his steed to turn around and rushes back to his lord.

…

"Milord!" Frederick hurriedly rushes back to Chrom.

"What is the matter, Frederick?" Chrom asks.

"Risen! Up ahead of the road!" Frederick reports.

"Risen?! They're here, too?" Chrom immediately gets up from the ground and up on his steed.

"Risen?" Stahl looks confused.

"No time to explain, Stahl. Get up and prepare yourself." Chrom takes out his sword, the Falchion. "Frederick, immediately call Lissa, Sully and Vaike, too! I'll go on ahead!"

"Wait, milord. It's dangerous to go alone!" Frederick calls out to Chrom, but his words failed to reach his lord. "Tsk! Stahl, go after our lord, quick! I'll catch up later after I notify the others."

"Er… I'm not sure what's going on, but alright." Stahl quickly get on his horse and chases after Chrom.

…

Chrom sees a group of Risen up ahead of him. As soon as his horse gets near to the Risen enough, Chrom jumps off the horse into the air. While still in midair, he spins his whole body with great speed and ram into one of the Risen, instantly cutting its body into two. The unfortunate Risen doesn't even have time to realize that it just has been attacked, it fades into the air before it even has a chance to roar.

Finishing the first of the Risen, Chrom intends to keeps up the momentum and goes on to attack the second one. He spins around and slashes up the torso of the Risen, but this one doesn't go down in one hit like the last one.

Earlier, thanks to force he created from spinning in midair, Chrom's slash was powerful enough to cut down a Risen in one hit. But now that he doesn't have the spinning momentum to help him, his attack just isn't powerful enough. To compensate for it, Chrom immediately follows up with another slash down, creating a big X on the Risen's torso.

"!"

Chrom immediately kicks the Risen and jumps back a few steps. Two Risens are down, but the other Risen have taken notice of Chrom's presence. Chrom had also lost his surprise advantage. Now, it's all left to his swordsmanship and instinct to keep him alive.

Chrom takes a few more steps back and goes into his fighting stance. Chrom spins his sword around a few spins, then folds his left arm across his chest with his right arm holding the sword horizontally across his left arm.

"Gwaaaaaar!" The Risen roar, and charges straight at Chrom. Two of the axe-using ones run ahead of the other, they raise their weapons upward swing it at Chrom.

Chrom squints his eyes and prepare for the moment when the axes almost touch him, he springs forward slashes through the waists of the two Risen. Just as he passes through the two axe-using Risen, a sword-using one leaps at him attack his right arm. The sword brushes through Chrom's bicep and inflicts a small wound.

Chrom dodges aside and lands on the ground with his back, he then immediately somersaults backward and pulls away from the three Risens… Only to find two more, one axe-using Risen and one sword-using Risen, waiting for him.

The two Risens immediately attack him from both sides. Chrom quickly parry the attack of the sword-using Risen and knocks its sword off the Risen's hands, but Chrom doesn't want to take chances and immediately jumps to the side to dodge the incoming axe. The axe misses its target, but just barely, it still manages to rip a large part of Chrom's cape however.

"Haah…" Chrom withdraws to a safe distance away from the Risen and takes a deep breath. "… Charging alone ahead doesn't seem so smart now…"

"Gwaaaaaar!" The Risen let out another roar and charges at Chrom once more.

"Here we go again…" Gripping his sword, Chrom get into his fighting stance and wait for the Risen to come into his sword range.

Then suddenly, from behind him, something jumps over him and lands right on the head of one of the Risen, crushing its head instantly.

Chrom recognizes that "something", it was Stahl's steed, with Stahl riding on it.

With a bronze sword in hands, Stahl swings it down on the head of another Risen while controlling his steed to do a 180 degree spin around, and finishes off the Risen with a nasty double kick from his steed. Then wasting not a single second, Stahl neighs his steed gallop towards Chrom.

"Are you unharmed, milord?" Stahl asks.

"I'm fine, Stahl. Focus on the enemy in front of you, we'll talk later." Chrom replies with his eyes still fixate on the two Risen left.

Only two axe-using Risen left, this shouldn't be too hard, he thought.

"Stahl, let me borrow your steed for a bit!"

"Huh? Eh…?"

Not waiting for a proper reply from Stahl, Chrom jumps onto Stahl's steed into the air and does his spinning attack at the Risen one more time. The Risen got cut down on the spot, leaving only one left. Chrom looks up to the Risen swinging its axe, he doesn't bother to stand up to fight it… as Stahl can take care of it for him. From behind Chrom, Stahl gallops his steed and ram straight into the Risen, bury his sword deep into the Risen's chest.

"Unnngh… Gwaaaaaar!" The Risen lets out a painful roar and fades away.

"Phew…" Stahl stops his steed and relaxes, he turns to face Chrom asks. "Just what were those… things? They look human, but they are not."

"I don't know either…" Chrom sighs. "All I know is that they are not friendly, not one bit."

Chrom whistles to call his horse over and get up on it. He then gets back to main road and takes a look into the distance. Up ahead of the road is a bridge, and beyond the bridge is yet another horde of Risen.

"Let's wait for the others to catch up, milord." Stahl suggests.

"Yes, I know, Stahl. Charging ahead alone doesn't sound so smart to me now…" Chrom glances over the wound on right arm.

"Y-you're wounded!" Stahl flusters.

"Peace, Stahl. It is but a scratch." Chrom says indifferently. "Once Lissa arrive, she can heal the wound with no problem. There's no need worry."

"Wah hah! Enter the Vaike!"

"Speak of the devil." Chrom smiles.

"Milord." Frederick goes next to Chrom. "Please forgive me for my tardiness. Are you unharmed, milord?"

"Just a little scratch over here." Chrom shows Frederick the wound. "It's nothing life-threatening. Lissa can fix this in a blink of an eye."

"Just leave it to me!" Lissa, who is riding on the steed with Frederick, holds out her healing staff and begins chanting a spell. Light gather around Chrom's arm, and wound starts to stitch itself. Like Chrom just said, in a blink of an eye, the wound has completely disappeared like it was never there to begin with. "There, all done."

"Alright, Captain." Sully enthusiastically spins her javelin around. "Let us go! We'll show those Risen who's boss!"

"Aww yeah! Just leave it to the mighty Vaike!" Vaike rushes ahead, not even waiting for others.

"Wait, Vaike!" Chrom calls out to Vaike.

"Don't stop me, Chrom! I'm really itching for a fight right now!"

"You're free to go pick a fight or whatever, but first tell me: where's your axe?"

"Of course my axe is right here with… Wait, my axe! Where's my axe!" Vaike panics.

"Urgh…" Lissa shakes her head in annoyance. "Did you leave it back where you took a nap?"

"Yeah, that's it! That's gotta be it! I'll go back and pick up my axe in a flash! Don't ja dare fight those Risen without me, Chrom!" Vaike points a finger at Chrom.

"Er-…" Chrom isn't sure how to respond to that.

"Beat it, Vaike. You snooze, you loose. We'll not wait for you!" Sully grips the javelin close to her. "Captain, let us go!"

"Sorry, Vaike. But duty calls." Chrom shrugs, he then raises the Falchion into the air and shouts. "Shepherds!

Chrom, Frederick, Lissa, Sully and Stahl charge forward and engage with the Risen over the bridge. A long fight ensues, but the Shepherds emerged as the victor in the end. Chrom, Stahl and Sully got a few bruises and scratches, but nothing too major and were quickly heal by Lissa. Frederick managed to dispatch quite a few Risen himself without getting a single scratch, an impressive feat that got shower with praises from Chrom and Lissa. Meanwhile, Vaike is still unable to find his axe.

"Urgh… Just where did my axe go?" Vaike grumbles.

"Just let it go, Vaike. We'll buy you another one when we arrive at the nearest city." Lissa pats Vaike on his shoulder.

"Grr… I'm still mad!"

"By the way, milord." Frederick speaks up. "I've noticed that there are different kinds of Risen."

"Yes, I noticed that too." Chrom replies. "That night we first encountered the Risen, the majorities wield axes, but earlier, I saw quite a few of them use swords and even lances. Hm… I wonder if they can use bow, too."

"Captain Chrom, watch out!"

Chrom hears someone call out for him, following by whoosh sound and a deafening CRANK!

Chrom startled and instinctively turns to see what just happened. There, he sees a Pegasus. And riding on that Pegasus, is Sumia!

"Sully, there's an archer hiding in that bush over there!" Shout Sumia.

"Gotcha!" Sully throws her javelin with all of her might at the direction Sumia pointed, and the javelin skewers through an archer Risen.

"Phew…" Sumia breathes a sigh of relief, then she get down from the Pegasus and faces Chrom. "Thank goodness you're safe, captain. I was so worried…"

"Sumia?" Chom calls out her name with disbelief. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to stay behind at the garrison? And where did this Pegasus come from?"

"Yes, captain Chrom. I know I was supposed to stay behind, but…" Sumia blushes. "I got so worried about you, so I had to do my flower fortune again to see if you were in danger or not, and it told me that you were. And right at that moment, when I didn't know what to do to help, this Pegasus swooped down from the sky and landed next to me. And the next thing I know, I was already riding on its back."

"That's… a little hard to believe." Chrom says.

"It's true, captain. The flower fortune also told me that Vaike lost his weapon, too. So here…" Sumia takes out a hand axe from her bag, and gives it to Vaike.

"Seriously?!" Vaike looks at Sumia with a questionable look in his eyes. "I don't know if I should be completely amazed or utterly horrified, or both…"

"Hee hee. You're making me blushed, Vaike."

"That's not a compliment!"

"Ahem…" Chrom clears his throat. "Let's just… leave the flower fortune aside, shall we? I'm just glad that you're here with us, Sumia."

"Thank you, captain. I may not be much, but please let me accompany you." Sumia bows to Chrom.

"Ooooh!" Lissa suddenly screams for no reason.

"W-what are you screaming all of a sudden for, Lissa?" Chrom asks.

"Nothing… Hee hee." Lissa feigns ignorance.

"… Okay?" Chrom raises an eyebrow. "Okay, enough chit-chat. The day is still young and it's still a long way to Regna Ferox, let us continue with our march, everyone."

"Aye, sir!" Everyone response favorably to Chrom's order and immediately continue their march with morale soar high...

"…" … Except for Frederick, he looks around the field to find the corpses earlier, but he found nothing. Were the corpses just a trap cleverly laid out by the Risens, or were they actual victims? If it's the former, then the Risen is even more dangerous than he had though. If its the latter, then whatever happened to the victims? Frederick can't help but feel troubled about it. It would be best that he tells Chrom about it, but then he decided not to, he doesn't want trouble his lord more than he has to…

… And then there's Stahl, who for some reasons alo seems to be troubled about something.

"What's the matter, Stahl?" Worried, Sully asks him.

"It's nothing. It's just that I have this feeling that I've forgotten something, but I can't remember whatever it is…" Stahl replies.

"Well, it's probably nothing important so don't worry about it." Sully pats Stahl on his shoulder and continues the march.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Stahl smiles and continues with the march.

… … …

… …

…

Far far far far behind the rest of the Shepherds, there is a man clad in complete armor from tip to toe, trying to catch up with everyone else but in vain, as he's already half a day behind thanks to his heavy armor, and that distance is just going to grow bigger per hour…

"Please, someone remember me already!" He says to nobody.

…

… Poor guy.

* * *

_Sanjima: Hello everyone, thank you for finishing this chapter 6 too, and sorry for not saying thank you after chapter 5 (I only notice that I forgot after uploading this chapter lol). Anyway, Miriel was supposed to appear this chapter together with Stahl, but due to my poor vocabulary, I was forced to write her out and make up an excuse that she was busy with her experiments, I'll try to find a way to introduce her probably in a future chapter, I hope that won't be much of an issue lol. Oh, and also, Merry Chritsmas, everyone! _


	7. Scrooge's journey to the west

**Chapter 7: Scrooge's journey to the west.**

"Hm…" Scrooge looks around to find himself in a middle of a giant forest, where there's too much trees with too much leaves that sunlight barely goes through to reach the ground, and where everything looks exactly the same no matter where he goes, or at least that's what he thinks.

Note to self, avoid going into forests unless there's no other option available, he thought to himself.

It is still early in the morning, but Scrooge hasn't had anything to eat since last night so he's currently feeling very tired and frustrated. He walks over to a large tree nearby and takes a seat. He puts down his hoe and opens the bag.

The dried food is almost all gone, probably enough left for one or two more days at best, he thought to himself.

"Haa…" He sighs and takes a small bit of the dried food to eat. As he eats, he goes over various random topics inside his head, none of which is important enough to note.

"… Sure wish there's someone nearby to keep me company…" He absentmindedly mutters.

"Somebody! HELP ME!" A scream of a young boy comes somewhere from within the forest.

"… This is not the kind of company I wished for!" Scrooge immediately packs his stuff up and runs towards the direction of the voice.

"Somebody, somebody! HELP!" The voice becomes clearer and clearer, a sign that Scrooge is near.

!

He has arrived at the scene. Or rather, he has come close enough to see what's going on. There, he sees a tall man with weird hairdo and a goatee, with a sword in hands, he is cornering a small boy, around 5 or 6 years old, into a tree. It doesn't take a genius to see what is going on, and if Scrooge doesn't interfere quickly, whatever happens next definitely will not be pretty.

"Somebody, help!" The boy screams once more.

"Shut up, you're annoying me, kid!" The man raises his sword into the air.

"WAIT!" Scrooge stops the man before he brings down the sword.

"Huh? Who the hell are you?" The man glares at Scrooge.

… Great, I shout out loud without thinking, what do I do now? Scrooge thought to himself.

"I SAID who the hell are you?" The man points his sword at Scrooge.

"Er, eh… I'm just a passing-through traveler, remember that!" Scrooge absent-mindedly answers the man, which he immediately expresses great regret (and disgust) right afterward.

"Are you mad?" The man looks at Scrooge with disgusted.

"No, you are mad!" Scrooge points his finger at the man. "What are you intending to do with that little boy?"

"Nothing that concerns you. Now beat it, kid!" The man turns back to the cowering boy to continue his business, but was quickly stopped by Scrooge throwing rocks at him.

"Let that boy go!" Scrooge crouches down to pick more rocks to throw at the man.

"Why you!" Enraged, the man runs towards Scrooge with intent to kill.

"…" Scrooge takes a few steps back and throws his hoe at the man, but it misses and landed near the little boy.

Seeing that he's in the range to attack Scrooge, the man swings his sword towards Scrooge while still running…

… And he tripped.

"Wha-What the?" The man looks down to his feet. He sees his feet got tangled by the grass.

Turns out, when Scrooge was picking up rocks earlier, he also ties up the grasses on the ground, and when the man runs over to Scrooge, he didn't pay attention to the ground and got tripped over by that simple trap.

Wasting not a single second, Scrooge immediately runs over to the boy, stepping over the man on the ground a few steps while he at it.

"Quick, run!" He urges the boy, picks up his hoe and quickly follows right after the boy.

"… AAArrrrggghh!" The man angrily gets up from the ground "Bleh! Bleh! Bleh! Damn it, the dirt got in mouth! Damn it, you brat! I'll kill you for that! I'LL FREAKIN' KILL YOU FOR THAT!" He swears.

The man grips his sword tightly and gives chase to Scrooge and the boy.

"Where did you come from, little guy?" Scrooge asks the boy as they run away.

"From… a village near here…" The boy answers, he seems to be out of breath.

"… Where's the village?" Scrooge changes the question to be more specific.

"It… It's…" The boy tries to squeeze the words out of his mouth but can't.

"Tsk…" Scrooge picks the boy up onto his shoulders. "I'll piggy back ride you. Now, where's your village, just pointing is fine too, quick!"

The boy points Scrooge into a direction and Scrooge starts running towards it.

"…" Due to carrying another on his shoulders, Scrooge can't run fast, and he finds himself to run out of breath faster than usual. His feet start to move slower and slower while the sound of his pursuer is becoming closer and closer.

"Ah hah! I got you now, brats!" The man finally catches up with Scrooge.

Having learnt a lesson from his earlier experience, this time the man doesn't run straight at Scrooge, instead he only runs towards a certain distance away from Scrooge, and jumps at him, planning to give him a quick death from above.

"…" Scrooge swings the hoe with all his might and digs deep into the ground below. Grass, sand, dirt, worms, everything he can get in one go, he digs it all up and throws them into the man's face.

"Gah!" The dirt got into the man's eyes and makes him momentary blind. Seizing the chance, Scrooge continues to run away, ignoring his fatigue.

Moments later, he finally sees the bright light ahead, he's almost out of the forest.

"Good… Just… a little more." Scrooge's face brightens up.

Scrooge speeds up. He's finally out of the forest, and he can see a small village in the distance from where he's standing.

Too happy about it, Scrooge lost his focus and trip. He and the boy fall down to the ground, rolling a few rounds before finally stopped.

"A-Are you okay, mister?" The boy asks Scrooge.

"Urgh… Yes, I'm fine…" Scrooge answers. "… Just barely though. Damn, that hurts…"

"Don't worry. You won't be able to feel anything after I pierce my sword right into the middle of your skull, brat!" The man had caught up since whence, and jumps on top of Scrooge, not giving him any ways of escaping.

"Crap!"

The man raises his sword high, and is going to put it down right at the middle of Scrooge's skull any second…

Not giving up yet, Scrooge desperately throws sand at the man, but giving that the man is literally on top of Scrooge right now, he doesn't need to see to bring his sword down.

"Wait! Time-out!" Scrooge yells.

"Time-out this!" The man brings his sword down, aimed straight at Scrooge's chest.

!

…

"… Wait, I'm not dead yet?" Scrooge mutters. He feels something hot on his cheek, something… liquid, and it stinks.

It's blood. But it's not Scrooge's blood, it's the man's blood.

Scrooge looks up and he sees a spear, piercing through the chest of the man, where his heart should be. It must have been an instant death, as he died with his eyes and mouth still wide open.

The spear got pulled out of the man and he falls down next to Scrooge, revealing the one responsible of the deed to Scrooge, it is a beautiful woman with long red hair that reaches her waist, her body is covered in bandages all over the place.

"Are you alright?" The woman holds out her hand to Scrooge and asks, even though she herself doesn't look so alright.

"I'm fine… I'm more worried about the kid." Scrooge gets up by himself and runs over to the boy. "Are you okay, little guy?" He helps the boy stands up.

"I-I'm alright… I-I'm just a little scared." The boy wipes the tears off his eyes. "Thank you, mister. Thank you, miss."

"Come on, Kenny." The red-haired woman walks over to the boy and pets him. "Let's go home… Your mother is worried sick."

Scrooge, the red-haired woman and the boy then go back into the village.

As soon as he steps into the village, Scrooge takes a quick look around. It is quite a small village, with about 20 wooden houses, all with pretty much the same sizes, arranges in two rows facing each other. There is a very large building at the middle of the road where the normal-size houses stop however. Scrooge assumes that building to be the village hall.

The woman leads the boy into a house near the village entrance. Scrooge silently follows them.

Inside the house, there is not much to see. Only some small chairs and a table in the center, some kitchen tools in what seems like a kitchen, some blankets and a cradle in one corner, and a middle-aged woman bawling her eyes out in that corner.

"Mother!" The boy calls out to the middle-aged woman and runs towards her and gives her a hug.

"Oh, Kenny! You're safe! Thank goodness you're safe!" The mother embraces her kid, her face brightens up.

Scrooge and the red-haired woman stand by the door and watch the scene. The woman seems to be genuinely happy about the mother-son reunion. Scrooge puts his robe's hood on, which makes his expression is a bit hard to see, maybe he is happy about it too, or maybe he is actually very angry, who knows.

After a while, the mother seems to have calmed down and finally notices the two standing by the door.

"Oh, Cordelia… Thank you so much for saving my child…" The mother directs at the red-haired woman.

"No, I didn't do much, madam." The red-haired woman, Cordelia says. "It's actually this …"

Before Cordelia could finish her sentence, Scrooge walks over to the mother and the boy. He looks at the mother indifferently for a second, then crouches down to pets the boy. He let down his hood, then smiles at the boy and says "Next time, don't go into the forest alone, okay? There's a lot of danger in it."

"But… I have to find father." The boy innocently replies. The mother is visibly shaken by what the boy just said.

"…You silly little guy…" Scrooge continues to pet the boy, still with a smile on his face. "Your father is… just taking a walk. He'll return eventually, you don't have to go look for him."

"But he hasn't come home for days…"

"Hey… Don't you see how sad your mother was? You don't want to make your mother sad, do you? Now, can you promise not to go into the forest alone again?"

"… Okay, mister. I promise…"

Scrooge extends the pinky finger on his right hand, the boy do the same, the two fingers intercross.

"Good boy…" Scrooge pats on the boy's head. "Well then, see you later, little guy. Please excuse me, madam."

Scrooge puts the hood back on, turns and walks toward the door. Before he goes out of the house, he signals Cordelia to come with him.

When they both out of the house, Scrooge carefully closes the door and talks to Cordelia with a quiet voice so that the boy and his mother won't be able to hear him.

"Bandits?" He asks.

"Yes, bandits…" Cordelia confirms. "They've been terrorizing in the area for the past few days."

"Where's the village chief?"

"Um, he's at the village hall, I think…" Cordelia then points to the largest building in the village. "The village hall is that large building over there."

Scrooge immediately head to the village hall.

"Wa-Wait for me!" Cordelia follows after Scrooge.

Scrooge walks into the village hall. It is rather spacious and doesn't have much furniture in there except for a rather large statue of a woman at the end of the hall. There, he sees an old man, who he assumes to be the village chief, and another woman, who also has red hair like Cordelia but is tied up into a ponytail, talking with him. The woman immediately notices Scrooge and Cordelia when they walk inside.

"Cordelia!" She runs toward Cordelia. "I'm glad that you were able to find the boy and return him to his mother safely. Good job!"

"Um… Thanks, I guess?" Cordelia says.

"But don't you go do that again, 'kay?" The woman with ponytail continues. "You're injured, for Naga's sake. Just let me handle everything next time."

"But Anna… How can I stay still when there's someone might be in danger? Especially a little boy!" Cordelia frowns.

"Haa… You're too stubborn for your own good, you know that?" Anna sighs. "Well, everything turns out alright so I guess it's okay, eh. Oh, by the way who is…" Anna looks over to next to Cordelia, where Scrooge should have been just moments earlier. Turned out, Scrooge had ignored the two's conversation completely and went straight to converse with the village elder. "Not the talkative type now, is he?" Anna raises an eyebrow.

"So it seems…" Cordelia sighs. "I saw him with Kenny outside the village, and we even escorted the boy back to his mother together, yet he still hasn't told me his name yet…"

Cordelia and Anna then go and join in the conversation with Scrooge and the village chief.

"Please trust me, I can help you dealing with the bandits." Scrooge says to the village chief.

"How?" Anna asks, curiously. "Are you, like, a martial art master or something?"

"No…" Scrooge looks at Anna funnily for a second, then comes back to the village chief. "I'm a schemer, not a fighter. I can think up a plan… But first, you have to tell me about this village and the bandits. I can't help without knowing anything."

"Well, you see…" The village chief sighs. "We folks were once a very peaceful village… But one day, around 2 weeks ago, all of the sudden, a band of bandits came out of nowhere and starts pillaging the village. Brave young men stood up to drive the bandits away. But alas… They were just normal farmers with no knowledge of battle whatsoever… And in the end, most of them were killed in that attack, those who don't are half-dead on beds right now… After that day, the bandits would go back to pillage our village once every 3 days…"

"Wait, then who helped protecting the village since then?" Scrooge asks.

"Why, it is us, of course." Anna speaks up.

"Yes, it was all thanks to these two, Anna and Cordelia." The village chief says. "On the night the bandits first attacked, Anna's merchant wagon was also staying here for a night. She and her companions helped driving off the bandits together with our townsfolk ever since that day…"

"… But as of today, I'm officially the only one left of my merchant band who can fight…" Anna looks puzzled. "They won't be much of help, I'm afraid. This is a very big problem, since it's been 3 days since their last appearance…"

"… Wait..." Scrooge looks over to Cordelia. "You two aren't sisters?"

"Oh ho ho. I have many, many sisters, but Cordelia here is not one of them, love. She is, um…" Anna nervously looks over to Cordelia, she seems to be hesitating to say more.

"I appreciate you considering my feelings, Anna. But it's alright…" Cordelia sighs. "My name is Cordelia, a proud member of Ylisse's Pegasus Knight Squad. My squad was dispatched to deal with bandits in a nearby area, but we didn't expect there to be another group of bandits here, and… and we got ambushed and got completely wiped out… If it weren't for the help of the people here, I would have been a goner myself…"

"… I'm very sorry to hear that…" Scrooge apologizes.

"It's okay…" Cordelia says with downcast eyes, but quickly recover from it. "Say… I don't think I've caught your name yet."

"… Scrooge." Scrooge answers.

"Alright, Scrooge. You said that you can deal with the bandits, right? Do you have a plan or something? If there's anything I can do to help, anything at all, please tell me!" Cordelia grips her spear tightly.

"…"

"… Scrooge?" Cordelia calls out to Scrooge again.

"…Anna." Scrooge turns to Anna.

"Y-yes?" Anna replies.

"… Does your item list include wine?" Scrooge asks.

"Wine? Why yes, I do. But what do you need them for?" Anna asks.

"Can you show me where, please?"

"Well, okay. If you insist…" Anna leads the way for Scrooge.

"I'll go, too." Cordelia speaks up.

"No need." Scrooge stops Cordelia. "Just Anna is good enough. You should take some rest. Go to the infirmary or something, you don't look so good."

"No, I'm fine. These bandages may make me looks bad, but the wounds aren't that serious…" Cordelia insists on going.

"I'm just checking the wine, not going off to fight the bandits…" Scrooge sighs."You should take some rest." Scrooge says it once more.

"… Alright." Cordelia agrees to Scrooge's suggestion to rest.

Anna then leads Scrooge into a nearby building.

"Here's my merchant wagon." Anna shows Scrooge the wagon and the large amount of items inside the building, she then goes over to where barrels stacked up. "Here. These barrels contain a wide variety of drinks. These ones here are wine. These ones here are juice. These ones here are mineral water. These ones here milk…"

"Milk?" Scrooge seems to react to the word for some reasons.

"Yes, milk. Is there a problem?" Anna asks.

"…No?" Scrooge rolls his eyes, looking around awkwardly. "Um… Can I ask for a cup, please?"

"Okay, here." Anna takes a cup out from one of the boxes and hand it over to Scrooge.

Scrooge takes the cup and immediately goes over to the milk barrel and takes a drink from it. He looks… surprisingly satisfied, to say the least. Anna finds the sight to be strangely intriguing.

"Haa…" Scrooge finishes the drink in one gulp. There's a huge grin visible on his face. "Um… Anyway, do you drink wine, Anna? Or do you prefer juice?"

"Hm, oh, juice, I think. I don't drink wine all that much." Anna replies.

"… Is that so?" Scrooge then ponders for a moment before continue. "Alright, Anna. Can you do me a favor and go back to the village hall to call Cordelia over here, please?"

"But I thought you told Cordelia to take a rest?"

"That was then and this is now." Scrooge takes another cup of milk to drink. "I've come up with a perfect plan to deal with the bandits."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Then let's go back to the hall and tell the plan to Cordelia!" Anna takes Scrooge's arm and intended to drag him back to village hall, but Scrooge stops her.

"No, actually…" Scrooge quickly withdraws his arm from Anna's clutch. "It has to be here, in this building, otherwise I won't be able to carry out the plan accordingly." Scrooge says.

"And why is that?" Anna tilts her head in wonder.

"I'll explain to you later. Just go to the hall to call them for now." Scrooge urges.

"… Okay?" Anna isn't exactly satisfied the answer, but ultimately decided to drop the subject.

Anna then exit the building, leaving only Scrooge behind, and heads straight to the village hall.

"Hey!" Anna calls out to Cordelia and the village chief.

"Hm? Oh, Anna!" Only the village chief answers, Cordelia is nowhere to be found.

"Where's Cordelia, chief?" Anna looks around for Cordelia.

"I just took her to the infirmary not long ago…" The village chief answers.

"Puh… Duh!" Anna feels like facepalming herself for not realizing something so obvious. She then leave the village hall and quickly head over to the infirmary.

"Cordelia!" Anna calls out to Cordelia right when she walks through the door to the infirmary.

"I'm right here. No need to yell like that, Anna…" Cordelia answers. She's standing in front of the shelf right next to the door, searching for medicine and vulnerary to treat her wounds.

"Scrooge told me to go get you. He said that he came up with a plan to deal with the bandits." Anna says.

"Haa…" Cordelia sighs. "That guy… First he told not to go, now he told me to go. Just who does he think he is?"

"Well, he does seem like shady character…" Anna rests her index finger on her face, pondering.

"Yeah…" Cordelia nods, slightly agree with Anna. "But he almost lost his life saving a little boy, so he must be a good guy, right?"

"Who lost what to save who?" Anna looks confused.

"Kenny. The boy that got lost this morning." Cordelia says while putting away the medicine and vulnerary. "Scrooge was protecting the boy from the bandit until I came to help. He seriously would have been killed had I arrived seconds late."

"Oh, really?" Anna wonders. "With how he keeps his face hidden under the hood, I thought he'd be the type of guy who goes around kidnapping young girls."

"Pfft… Isn't that a little too overboard?" Cordelia can't help but snickering at the comment. "… Anyway, enough chit-chat. Let's go, Anna."

…

"Hey, Scrooge! We're here!" Anna calls out to Scrooge.

"Oh, good…"Scrooge gives two cup of juice to Anna and Cordelia. "Here, have a drink, you two."

"Oh, thanks…" Cordelia takes a cup, and so do Anna.

"Come on, take a drink." Scrooge urges the two.

Anna looks at Cordelia and shrugs. They aren't sure what Scrooge was thinking, but oh well… A drink is a drink, no harm in drinking.

"… Hm?" Anna looks at the cup funnily after drinking a little. "Isn't the juice taste… a little weird?"

"Is it?" Cordelia tries the juice a little. "I don't see anything wrong…"

"No, the juice's original taste is supposed to be very sweet. This one is a lot pale in comparison…" Anna complains.

"… Maybe it got overdated." Scrooge says.

"No way…" Anna puts down the cup on one of the barrels and quickly goes to check on the barrel of juice.

"Um… Anna, can we leave this… juice problem to later?" Cordelia says.

"Not a chance!" Anna reacts violently. "I've already lost a lot of money due to being stuck here at this village for days. Do you realize how much more I'd lost if these supplies of mine got further damaged, spoiled, broke, etc… Do you?!"

"Urgh… Um… Okay?" Cordelia gives up on the idea of arguing back.

"…" Scrooge doesn't comment and just keep staring at Anna…

"Um… Scrooge?" … Which Cordelia found to be disturbing.

"… Yes?" Scrooge answers, but something sounds off with his voice.

"Aren't you going to tell us the plan to deal with the bandits?" Cordelia says.

"Ah, yes… The plan…" Scrooge looks over to Cordelia.

"Um… Is… something wrong? You're creeping me out, Scrooge." Cordelia takes a step away from Scrooge.

"Well, you see…" Scrooge says with a very monotone voice and very slowly. "The two of you have been fighting off those bandits by yourself all this time, right?"

"Um… Yes?"

"… Then that means you've killed quite a few of their numbers, right?"

"… Yes, and…?"

"…" Scrooge stops saying anything more, and looks over to Anna.

"… Hng… Urgh…" Anna suddenly collapse to her knees.

"… Anna?!" Cordelia calls out to Anna. She intended to run over to her friend, but she suddenly finds herself to lose all of the strength in her feet, and she too falls to her knees. "Wha… What the…?" Those are the last words she was able to mutter, as she loses the last bits of her strength and falls down to the ground. Her voice got robbed away, her vision grows hazy, her mind goes numb.

The last thing she was able to remember before she completely loses her consciousness was the sight of Scrooge crouches down next to her and mutters "…Then surrender you two to the bandits would surely satisfy their anger, right?"

* * *

_Sanjima: Hello everyone, thank you for finishing chapter 7. I had fun writing this chapter because it isn't base on an actual chapter in the game, but completely made up by me (well, I did originally base it on Anna's paralogue, but then somehow it turned out like this lol), and because it officially introduces my two favorite red-headed characters in the game. Anyway, Scrooge's story with this village obviously isn't finished yet, there's still a second-half in chapter 8. So, please look forward to chapter 8, coming soon in next year lol._


	8. Hide a knife behind a smile

**Chapter 8: Hide a knife behind a smile.**

…

"… Hngh…" Cordelia is starting to regain her consciousness. She tries to open her eyes with difficulties, and takes a look at the surrounding. Her vision is still a little hazy, but at least she's still able to make out where she is. She's currently at the village entrance, it seems.

Wait… Why is she at the village entrance? And why is it nighttime already?

She tries to move around, but then she realizes but her whole body is tied up and she can't so much even lift her arms or legs.

What's going on here? Cordelia asks herself.

"Oh, it looks like the little girl here has woken up, Vincent."

Cordelia looks up to see who it was that just spoke. Much to her horror, it was the leader of the bandits.

"Yes, it looks like the little girl has woken up, Victor."

Scratch that, both the leaders of the bandits are here.

Panic, Cordelia looks around. Right next to her on the right side, is Anna, also tied up like her and is still unconscious. And to her left side, is Scrooge, down on his knees and bows to the bandit's leaders.

"… Scrooge, you…" Cordelia calls out to him, but he doesn't response, he doesn't so much move a muscle, he just keeps bowing down to the bandit's leaders like that. Realizing what is going on here, Cordelia screams at Scrooge. "You… How dare you betray us like this! Is this how you repay someone who saved your life?!"

"…" Scrooge glares at Cordelia, but still doesn't say anything.

"I thought you were supposed to be good guy!" Cordelia continues. "I trusted you!"

"…Your fault then." Scrooge slowly stands up and looks down at Cordelia. "You should know better than to trust a complete stranger."

"Grr… Curse you!" Cordelia loses it. "Cowardly sale out the lives of your once-allies… Do you honestly believe that will bring peace to you?! Our souls will curse you for all eternity for this betrayal… Guh!"

Scrooge whacks Cordelia furiously with the hoe in his right hand. He keeps hitting her over and over again until she loses unconscious once more. Her whole body is now covered with bruises and blood.

"Darling, don't you go kill her now." One of the bandit's leaders, Vincent, says.

"Darling, didn't you promise you'd let us decide on what to do with the girls?" The other leader of the bandit, Victor, says.

"Ah, yes… Please forgive me, sir." Scrooge crouches down.

"Now, what shall we do to her, Vincent?" Vincent asks Victor.

"Yes, what shall we do to her now, Victor?" Victor asks Vincent back.

"Um, sir… If I may?" Scrooge speaks up. "I've prepared a feast for everyone at the village hall for everyone. Why don't we go there and enjoy ourselves?"

"That does sounds good, isn't it, Victor?" Vincent asks Victor.

"Yes, that does sound good, Vincent." Victor replies to Vincent, then turns to order his men. "Now, shall we go, boys?"

Vincent and Victor then take each carry Cordelia and Anna on their shoulders, respectively, and head to the village hall with their underlings.

"… About 50, huh?" Scrooge mutters to himself and follows shortly behind the bandits.

…

With lots of delicious food and fine quality wine, the bandits forget everything and proceed to satisfy their gluttony. They party the hell out of their life until the dead of night. The sight of the bandits sleeping after the party is like that of an aftermath of a big battle, with weapons, armors, barrels, cups, and plates scattering around everywhere, bodies piling on each other like that of corpses. A truly chaotic sight… And from the pile of bodies, one person gets up, it is Scrooge.

"…" Scrooge walks over the bodies of the bandits, and head towards the end of the hall, where the bandit's leaders tied up the unconscious Anna and Cordelia. He crouches down and slaps Anna. "Hey, wake up…" He calls out to her.

"Er… no haggling, sir… I already cut the price by 1%..." Anna mumbles. Scrooge then takes a cup of water from a nearby barrel and throws onto her face. "Woah! A steel sword is 840 gold. A steel lance is 910 gold."

"Shh…" Scrooge puts his right hand onto Anna's mouth to stop her from making any more noise, then proceeds to untie her.

After being untied, Anna takes a quick look around the chaotic hall. "What the heck just happened?" She puts an index finger on her cheek and wonders.

"Long story…" Scrooge says. "Anyway… Can you, er, untie Cordelia for me, please? I'd fear she rips off my throat the moment I touch her."

"I'll not do it if you don't tell me what's going on here!" Anna refuses.

"Urgh…" Scrooge frowns.

…

Let's rewind time a little so we can have a better understanding about what happened. I'll make it brief.

When Scrooge told Anna to go call Cordelia over, Scrooge used that time to grind the sleeping herbs he had with him into small pieces and mix them with the juice. After Anna and Cordelia succumbed to the sleeping effect, he went to call the village chief over and explain the ruse. Scrooge wanted to use Anna and Cordelia as baits to win the trust of the bandits and make them let down their guard.

Though Scrooge did hide the fact that he drugged Anna and Cordelia without their notice to the village chief, he lied that they understood the plan and agreed to do it with. The village chief believed the lie and trusted Scrooge.

But Scrooge isn't a fighter so he needs the villagers to make a big feast to "welcome" the bandits. Scrooge will then invite the bandits to enjoy the feat and use all of Anna's supply of wine to serve them. To avoid suspicion, Scrooge will only serve them normal wine until late in the party, then Scrooge will drug the wine when most of the bandits are drunk.

That was his plan, but since it is a rather risky plan with no guarantee of succeeds. In fact, the bandits may have saw through Scrooge's lie if Cordelia didn't wake up so soon. When she questioned Scrooge's betray, he came up with an idea to improvise the plan by willingly hit her until she fall unconscious again. It was a cruel action and Scrooge did feel guilty doing it, but it managed to win the bandit's trust completely and Scrooge's plan went off smoothly thanks to that.

…

"Long story short… I drugged you two. Night came. The bandits appeared. I pretended to surrender. I threw a party for the bandits. After a while, I drugged them too. Then just minutes ago, I woke you up."

"Okay…?" Anna raises an eyebrow. "Then why can't you untie Cordelia yourself like you just did to me?"

"Er, you see… She kinda woke up sooner than I expected, so ,er, I had to used… other means to make her sleep again."

"…" Anna takes a look at Cordelia and sees all the bruises on her face. "You did these to her, didn't you?"

"… Yes, I…" Anna punches him in the face before he could even finishes the sentence, sending him flying to the air for a second before hitting the floor. "… I deserved that one." He mutters.

"I'll punch you more, but I'll save those for Cordelia." Anna then unties Cordelia. "Hey, Cordelia. Wake up…" Anna calls out to Cordelia.

"…Just let her rest for a little more." Scoorge gets up from the ground. "You should get her to the infirmary. Then we'll talk about how to deal with these drunkards."

"Alright." Anna nods, she then holds Cordelia with her shoulders and helps Cordelia to the hall's entrance.

The three walks over the bandits and get to near the hall's entrance. Then suddenly, a hand springs up and grabs Scrooge's leg. "Gah!" He yells.

"Tsk tsk tsk… I thought it was strange how you only drink milk throughout the party." The one who grabbed Scrooge's leg speaks up, it was one of the bandit's leaders, Victor. "So it was all just a clever little ploy, eh?"

"Scrooge!" Anna puts Cordelia down and runs to help Scrooge.

Victor grabs Scrooge's leg tightly and swings him around like that of a club, then violently throws him at the direction of Anna. Anna got hit by Scrooge, and the two got knocked away, smashed through the halls' door, roll down the stairs and finally stopped when their bodies hit the cold ground outside.

"Damn… That hurts…" Scrooge rolls on the ground, groaning.

Anna, on the other hand, immediately gets up on her feet and dashes back into the hall to get Cordelia. Victor also quickly picks up his short axe, and runs to stand between Anna and Cordelia. He swings the axe down at Anna like a woodcutter chopping wood. But Anna is not an amateur herself, she sees the attack coming and quickly rolls her body up to dodge the attack and slides on the floor towards Cordelia. The axe complete misses Anna and goes straight to the floor, smashing a large hole on it.

"You're strong, love, but that sluggish movement of yours won't get you anywhere with me." Anna mocks Victor while getting Cordelia up.

"Fu… Is that so, darling?" Victor doesn't seem to mind the mocking comment much.

Victor swings down his axe one more time, but not at Anna, but at the floor below him, creating yet another large hole. He then does it again and again, until there is a huge gap between him and Anna. With Cordelia still unconscious, Anna can't just run over that gap or else Cordelia will get stuck with all the wood's splinters, and if Anna try to jump over the gap with Cordelia hanging on her, Victor will have the chance to hit her directly in mid-air.

"Urgh…" Finally realizes the meaning of Victor's action, a sweat runs down Anna's cheek. "Now's a good time to wake up, Cordelia…" She urges her companion.

"So, what are you going to do now, darling?" Victor licks the tip of his axe, menacingly. "If you're not doing anything, then allow me…" He throws the short axe away, aiming straight at Anna. The axe whooshes through the air and brushes through Anna. The throw wasn't even close to its target, but it made a point clear, that Victor is the one in control of the situation here.

"…" Anna slowly puts Cordelia down and reaches for a lying steel sword nearby. She made a choice to stand and fight rather than to look for a way to run away. "Careful, love. Prices aren't the only thing I can cut in half." She boasts.

"O, really now…" Victor smirks. "I was born a Victor, and victory will be mine!" He boasts back.

Gripping the sword in her hands, Anna dashes at Victor attack him with great speed. Anna mercilessly attacks Victor from multiple sides, Victor barely able to defend himself from all the attacks.

"Heh…" Anna grins. "I thought you were supposed to be a Victor?"

"Why, yes I am…" Victor throws his axe away. Anna easily dodges it.

"Not even close." Anna gets even closer to Victor, intended to end the fight right then and there.

"Look behind you." Victory calmly tells Anna.

"I'm not falling for that… Wait!" Anna immediately turns around. The axe Victor threw missed her, but it continued flying and is currently going straight to the unconscious Cordelia. "Cordelia!" Anna yells and runs with all her might to protect Cordelia from the axe. Anna manages to knock the axe away, but she sped up too much doing so, and loses her balance. Not wasting this chance, Victor immediately rushes in, catches his axe and swings down at Anna. The axe slides through her torso and a gaze of blood gushes out and spatters everywhere.

"Ahh!" Anna lets out painful yell and falls down to the floor, unmoving.

"Heh." Victor stays his hand, and slowly walks toward Anna. He looks down on her and kicks her in the guts. "Not so tough now, are ya?" He then raises his axe into the air, intended to deal the finishing blow…

!

Suddenly, he feels something right behind him. He immediately swings his axe around and hit Scrooge, who was about to attack him from behind, sending Scrooge flying into a corner of the hall and fell down to a number of barrels. Scrooge quickly gets back up on his feet, grabs a barrel and throws it at Victor. Instinctively, Victor swings his axe to smash the barrel to pieces in mid-air, and got wine poured all over him. And literally a second later, a torch fly straight at him, setting his whole body on fire.

"Arghhh!" Victor screams in anguish and struggles in vain to put out the fire.

Scrooge takes the chance and quickly runs out of the hall together with Anna and Cordelia.

"Ah!" The village chief, who just arrived outside of the village hall along with other villagers, sees Scrooge runs out. "We're here. I've gathered everyone left in the village like you told me, too!"

"Now's not the time for that!" Scrooge puts down Anna and Cordelia onto the ground, he quickly tears off a part of the cape of Anna's outfit and wraps it around her torso to stop her bleeding. "Quick! Vulnerary, herbs, bandages,… Anything! Her life is in danger here!"

Scrooge and the villagers desperately run through every medical item left in the infirmary to save Anna from death.

"… Hngh…" Then, Cordelia starts to regain her consciousness. The moment her eyes catch a glimpse of Scrooge, she immediately forget all her pain and wanted to end his life right at that instant, but…

"Arghh!" From inside the village hall, with his body still on fire, Victor jumps out. With his whole body ablaze, he drives fear in everyone who sees him and renders them unable to move a muscle. "Graghhh!" He roars once more, and then proceed to jumps at the first one his eyes caught sight of, Cordelia, like a mad beast. Cordelia, still hasn't fully recovered yet, was unable to react in time…

Cordelia got pushed away by Scrooge right before Victor collides into her and became the victim in her place.

Scrooge got pinned down to the ground and got choked by Victor. "… Help…" He scrabbles around frantically and desperately calls out for help. Some of villagers wanted to help, got frozen up the moment Victor glares at them. "… H… Help…" He tries to call for help one more time, his face is turning very blue…

Can't bare the cruel some sight, Cordelia reaches for a sharp piece of the broken door and pierced through Victor's throat, killing him once and for all. Then she takes off Scrooge's robe and puts out the fire with it.

"*hack* *cough* *cough*" Scrooge coughs violently after being saved. Despite that, he still tries to squeezes out a weak "thank you" to Cordelia.

"Tsk… Why did I save him?" Cordelia looks dejected. She wanted him dead to get it over with, but couldn't bear to see him to see him suffer, it was just so contradicting that Cordelia isn't sure what to do with him next.

"… Urgh…" He then slowly crawls to next to Anna. "Please… Don't die on me…" He begs. Maybe it was the aftereffect of almost being choked to death, but Scrooge's expression is really pained and grievous, he looks like he would break down crying anytime soon.

…

"… Don't… kill me off… so early…" Anna knocks Scrooge on the head.

"Anna!" Cordelia runs to the side of Anna and takes her hand. "Try to hang in there!"

"I'm… trying here…" Anna grins, with much difficulties…

…

After almost an hour of struggle, Anna's finally out of danger and was carried to rest in the infirmary. Scrooge, Cordelia and the village chief then turn their attention to the remaining bandits.

Scrooge proposed that they either stab the bandits in their sleep, or set fire to the village hall and burn all the bandits in there. The village chief agreed that they are viable options but asked Scrooge to think up another option, since he doesn't want to burn down the village hall nor he want it to be stained with blood (because that would be bad omen, he said). Cordelia then proposed to dump the bandits down the river behind the village. Scrooge wasn't sure that was a good idea, but village chief agreed to it, so Scrooge kept silent and tagged along. The "transport" went without trouble and the bandits were no longer a threat for the village. The village is finally able to go back to its peaceful nature it once had.

The next day, Scrooge left the village early. Seeing as she no longer needed, Cordelia also left the village early together with her Pegasus to return to her Pegasus Knight Squad at the border.

…

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Stop following me!" Cordelia yells at Scrooge.

"B-but I wasn't following you! I'm heading this way too… I swear!" Scrooge nervously responds.

"Where are you heading exactly?" Cordelia asks.

"… west." Scrooge replies.

"I asked, _where exactly_?"

"Uhm… Plegia?"

"Plegia? Are you a Plegian?"

"… Not exactly, but I am finding a way home."

" Haa…" Cordelia sighs. "Fine then… Since this is the only road that leads west, you can come with me…" Since Scrooge did explain to her about his ruse to trick the bandits, she supposed that there's no more reason to keep hating him. Cordelia is not the type of woman to keep a grudge on someone for a long time anyway.

"Thank you, CordeliGah!" Scrooge got kicked in the guts by Cordelia's Pegasus when he got closer.

"Wah! Are you alright?" Cordelia quickly helps Scrooge get back up on his feet and then turns to scold at her Pegasus. "Bad girl! What did you do that for?!"

There's still a long road ahead until they reach the border, but at least they probably won't feel lonely until then...

* * *

_Sanjima: Hello everyone, thank you for finishing this chapter 8. I have somewhat conflicted feeling about this chapter myself, since I wanted to insert in some tricks in the Thirt-Six Stratagems, but had to simplify it to fit in the chapter and doesn't make it feel dragged out, the result is... not very satisfying to me. Maybe I'll go and rewrite the chapter again in the future when I have a better idea. And anyway, when Cordelia curses at Scrooge, I know that it may feel out of character for Cordelia to insult someone, but I'll get to it in details in a later chapter. So, please look forward to chapter 9 in next year, everyone! Oh, and also, happy new year! :D  
_


	9. The longfort

**Chapter 9: The longfort.**

After a week, Chrom and the Shepherds finally approach the Longfort, well-known far and wide for being the largest fortress that stands guard between the border of the Halidom of Ylisse and Regna Ferox.

The Longfort, got its name for being a long series of fortifications built along the west-to-east line across the southern borders of Regna Ferox. No one knows when was it built or for what purpose was it built for. But, when mention the Longfort, people will always known it for two facts: it is such a long fort, that it completely divides the whole continent of Ylisse into two, with the northern part of the continent belongs to Regna Ferox, while the southern part is shared between the Halidom of Ylisse and the Theocracy of Plegia; and it is a completely invincible and impenetrable fortress, due to its solid construction and having natural blizzards regularly all year long.

"Brrr! It's f-f-freebing here!" Lissa rubs her hands continuously to keeps her body warm.

"Here, Lissa." Chrom hugs Lissa, and covers with his cape to keep both brother and sister warm. "I've heard that the Longfort has blizzard all year long, but I never thought it was actually true. Such harsh and severe weather, and yet it's the norm for the people here." Chrom is in awe. "There sure is a lot of the world that I had yet to known…"

"Heh, this much of snow doesn't mean a thing to me!" Vaike boasts.

"Yeah, a fool can't catch a cold, after all." Sully snarls at Vaike.

"Yeah, you got that right! Teach here is so strong, he never caught a cold in his life!" Completely unaware of what Sully actually meant, Vaike continue with his boast.

"Urgh…" Sully can't help but sighs at Vaike's naiveness (stupidity).

"Say, we've been walking in this snow for quite a while already." Stahl speaks up. "When will we finally reach the Longfort? I'm starving here."

"According to the map, probably about half an hour or so." Frederick says. "Try to hang in there a little more, Stahl."

"Captain." Sumia calls out to Chrom. "I just did a flower fortune…"

"Not the flower fortune thing again, Sumia?" Chrom frowns. His head hurts just trying to think what Sumia would say to him about the flower fortune this time.

"Yes, captain. The flower fortune told me that there's trouble up ahead of the road. Perhaps I go ahead and scout the area?" Sumia suggests.

"It's alright, Sumia. In this snow, even with the Pegasus, you'll not be able to fly much further than the rest of us. It'd be troublesome if you get lost. Let's just stick together for now." Chrom orders.

"Aye, captain." Sumia is kind of disappointed that Chrom refused, but she still smiles regardless.

"Then allow me to go ahead, milord." Frederick volunteers.

"Alright, if it's you then I have nothing to worry about." Chrom nods. "Just be careful not to go too far, Frederick."

"Aye, sir." Frederick bows to Chrom, then he rowels his horse to gallop ahead.

"Hmm…" Lissa looks at Chrom and Sumia funnily and with a small grin on her face.

"What?" Chrom asks Lissa.

"Why did you allow Frederick to go while refusing Sumia just mere seconds before?" Lissa asks.

"Well, that's because Frederick is a veteran knight, while Sumia is still inexperience." Chrom answers.

"Oh, really now? I think otherwise…" Lissa looks over to Sumia, still with a small grin on her face.

"Lissa, you're sounding like Scrooge…"

"Ee hee hee."

…

"Milord!" After a while, Frederick hurriedly returns to his lord side.

"What is it, Frederick? Is there something up ahead again?" Chrom asks.

"Risen, milord!" Frederick reports. "I see Risen up ahead! The Feroxi Guard is currently engaging with those Risens!"

"I knew it! Shepherds, prepare yourselves! We must go and give aid to them fast!" Chrom orders. He takes out his sword, the Falchion, from its scabbard and charges ahead of everyone.

"Waah! Sloow doooown, Chrooom!" Lissa, the one sharing the seat with Chrom on the steed, yells.

…

"Armor knights! Form a wall to protect the entrances of the fort! We must not let those things breach the fort at all cost!" The Feroxi Guard's leader, Raimi, orders her subordinates, and goes to join the fray.

The Feroxi knights' defense is truly formidable, as not The Risen could only scratch at their armor without being able to harm the knights themselves. The knights guard themselves against the attack, then push back in wave, preventing the Risen to advance further. The tactic isn't that great offensively, but as a defensive tactic to guard a chokehold, it was perfect…

… Or so it would have been had the Risen not number in hundreds. With that massive number, they flood at the Feroxi knights. The knights were able to push back a few waves, but they eventually got overwhelmed, the Risen just step onto the knights and themselves, creating a living ladder (as much living as a zombie can be anyway…) to scale over the walls of the fort.

"Archers! Commence firing at will!" The leader of the archer squad gives the order. Hundreds of arrows let loose out of the bows and pierce through the scaling Risen, pushing them back to and down the walls.

While his squad still firing at will, the archer leader calmly walks forward, gracefully shoots down any Risen so much glare at him. Standing at the edge of the wall, he looks down at the struggling armor knight of Raimi, flips his hair, then calls out to Raimi below. "Raimi, my dear. Don't you think that your guard platoon is a whee bit in trouble? Isn't it time for you to order a retreat before we are completely overwhelmed?"

"Silent, Virion!" Raimi yells at the archer leader. "Never retreat, never surrender. To find death in the field of battle is the greatest glory in one's life. That is the way of life of a Feroxi's knight! Now, proud knights, push forward! Drive back these unholy creatures off our beloved land!"

"Fair enough." Virion replies to Raimi, then he raises his hand up and gives an order to his archer squad. "Archers, move forward! Fire at will at the enemy! Don't let the armor knights steal all of the glory!"

The archers cry out in unison and charges forward to the edge of the wall, arrows firing down at the Risen like rain. Not losing to the archers above, the armor knights also stand their ground like an unshakable mountain and push back any Risen who hasn't been shot down by the archers. With just a small conversation between two people, the morale of the entire platoon was raised sky high.

"Heh." Virion flips his hair then joins his comrades in the firing. "Die! With magnificence!" He cries and shoots two his arrows, piercing through a running Risen's throat from afar.

…

"Huh?" Chrom stops his horse and stares into space. "Wait… Something is funny here."

"Not this 'something' again. What is it this time?" Lissa peeks out from behind Chrom to look.

"Shh…"

"Gwaaaaaar!" A loud roar can be heard from afar. A horde of Risen is running right at the direction Chrom, but there's something not quite right with them, they don't seem to be as aggressive as they were in the last fights with Chrom, instead they seem to be… running away from something. Chrom isn't sure what to make of it.

"What's wrong, captain? Let's go and give those Risen a beating already!" From behind Chrom, Sully passes him and charges straight at the Risen.

Vaike, who is sharing the seat with Sully, also takes a quick jab at Chrom "Move your princely ass quick, or the Vaike'll steal all the kill this time!"

"Heh, those two hot-headed…" Chrom grins and immediately jumps off the horse to join his two companions.

"… Chrom's leaving me behind again. The nerve of him!" Lissa pouts.

When near the Risen enough, Vaike stands up and jumps off the horse. "Wahah! Enter the Vaike!" he shouts, and descends upon the Risen like a giant. He twirls the axe in his hand and start attacking any Risen he can reach. "A one! A two!" He begins counting. Not losing to Vaike, Chrom also quick to take action. With the two warriors back-to-back, the Risen, even with their overwhelming number, doesn't stand a chance.

"Men…" Sully can't help but smile at the scene. She then rowels her steed to jump into the middle of a pack of Risen and fights alone. No, actually… Saying she fights alone is a very wrong statement. As Sully is a cavalier, to her, her steed is not simply just a horse, it is her trusted comrade, her beloved brother. When Sully swings her javelin to attack her enemy on one side, the horse would tilt its body slightly to that side to make things easier for Sully. If an enemy takes that chance to attack on the other side, the horse would take care of that enemy for Sully by kicking that enemy in the guts. If they got surrounded on all sides, the horse would jump up and spin around, keeping the enemy away, and to create enough space for Sully to dispatch those enemies. Together, they are a prime example of how a cavalier should be, an invincible duo of the knight and her steed.

"My, such elegance in combat."

"Wha-?" Sully got surprised and her fighting got halted by the sudden appearance of the unfamiliar man.

"G' day, my fair lady." The man makes a quick elegant bow to Sully, then quickly turns to shoot down a Risen from behind him, then turns back to Sully and continues with his praise. "Power and skill, beauty and strength! What a magnificent combination!"

"… Who the hell are you suppose to be?!" Sully tries to ask the man as she fends off the Risen. His sudden appearance had distracted her somewhat, making it hard for her to fight as effective as earlier.

"Ha! Is the lady intrigued? Of course you are—it's only natural." He flips his hair. "I am myth and legend!" He turns to shoot down two Risen one after another in a matter of second. "I am he who strides large across history's greatest stage!" He trips a Risen coming at him, gets on top of it and shoots it right in the philtrum. "The man who puts the "arch" in "archer"!" He stands up and raises both of his hands into the sky. "My name, my fair lady, is…"

"VIRION!"

"Yes, Virion. That is my name, my fair lady. How did you… Wait!" The arrogant on his face quickly fade away, and in its place is a perplexedly look, because that wasn't Sully who just spoke, it was… "Ah, Raimi, my dear." Virion calls out to her.

"What are you, an archer, doing charging into the fray ahead of us armor knight? Have you had a death wish?" Raimi says.

"No worries, Raimi, my dear." Virion makes a quick graceful bow to Raimi. "It wasn't my intention to find death in a place like this. It's just that I smelled love is in the air, and wanted to seek out the source of that smell." He turns to Sully once more. "Now, my fair lady. Pray, won't you grace me the honor of knowing your beautiful name?"

"Urgh…" Sully isn't sure of what to do in such a situation (and neither does Raimi). Ultimately, she decided to just ignore him and focus on the Risen for now. "I have something else to worry about, right now…" She says.

"Ah, yes…" Virion nods. "Come, my fair lady. Let us grace the world with our presence together!" Virion readies his bow and arrows. "You too, Raimi, my dear. Try not to fall behind."

Raimi is still a little confused about what happened, but she quickly snap out of it and tell her troops to dispatch the remains of the Risen.

With the combined forces of both the Shepherds and Feroxi's Guard, the remaining Risen got wiped out in no time. There are some that got injured during the process, but nothing too serious, so Lissa and was able to heal them back to perfect shape without any trouble.

"I, Raimi, on behalf of the Feroxi Knight Guard, a million thanks for the aid, sir." Raimi bows to Chrom.

"Please, there's no need to thank us. It was our pleasure to be of help." Chrom says. "And actually, in the name of House Ylisse, we are come to Regna Ferox to seek out an audience with the khans to discuss matters concerning those creatures earlier."

"Representatives of House Ylisse? Then you must be…"

"Yes, I am prince Chrom of Ylisse. This is my little sister and princess of Ylisse, Lissa. And everyone here with me is my trusted companions, known as the Shepherds." Chrom introduces himself.

"Yes, and I am Virion." Virion introduces himself. "I am myth and legend. The man who…"

"… This is hardly time nor place to talk, prince Chrom." Raimi interrupts Virion's introduction. "Let us return to the Longfort. We will continue our conversation there." She then quickly orders her troops to hurry back immediately, with her leading the guard, and Chrom and the Shepherds follow right behind.

"Wait, I haven't finished yet. I said wait!" Virion calls out, but nobody so much glances over at him. Poor Virion, all he wanted was to make a grand introduction worthy to someone as noble as him, but no one could appreciate it.

…

Raimi and her Feroxi Knight leads the way for Chrom and the Shepherds to follow. Shortly afterward, they all arrive at one of the many entrances of the Longfort.

"Whoa! So this is the Longfort? It's huge, and so looooooong!" Lissa is in awed.

"I've read much about the Longfort from many book, but to have the honor see it in real life like this… I-I don't know what to say…" Sumia is so moved that there are tears streaming down her face.

"Er… It's just a pile of bricks, stones and semen and maybe a lot of other random nasty stuffs… What's so special about this fort exactly?" Vaike tilts his head.

"Maybe if you shut up for a moment, you'll understand, Vaike." Sully murmurs to Vaike.

"No, seriously… Even our garrison back in Ylisse is all made from the same stuff as this thing, and no one ever praised it before." Vaike rolls his eyes, thinking. Then he turns to Stahl to ask for his opinion. "What do you think, Stahl?"

"When is dinner?" Stahl yawns.

"Urgh…" Sully shakes her head in annoyance.

"Quiet down, you three." Frederick speaks up. "We are currently the representatives of an entire kingdom. Do you honestly want this to be the impression to give to the Feroxi people when they think of Ylisse?"

"…" Sully, Stahl and Vaike all shut their mouth, not saying another word.

In front of the entrance, Raimi orders the Feroxi Guard to get back to their posts, then she turns to Chrom. "Prince Chrom." She says, standing up straight, with her hands behind her back. "I really appreciate your aid back then. But I'm afraid this is the furthest point I'll allow you to go."

"What?! Why?" Chrom question the logic behind Raimi's words. Why go so far as to lead him to the entrance, just to tell him to go home?

"Please understand, prince Chrom. I am the leader of Feroxi Guard platoon, and my job is to keep outsiders from entering our land. I can't make an exception even if you are of noble blood. If you want to get through, then you have to defeat me in combat first."

"But we only want to discuss diplomacy, my lady." Frederick speaks up. "Surely you can understand and make an exception for your policy?"

"And strength is policy here, sir." Raimi turns to Frederick and says. "If you don't have the necessary strength, then I see no reason to let you meet the khans. I repeat, if you want to get through, then you have to defeat me in combat first." Raimi grip the short spear in her hand tightly and stand facing all of the Shepherds, unfazed.

"So this is a test of strength, I see." Frederick takes a hold of his silver lance, gets off his steed and goes to face Raimi. "Then I shall be your opponent." He loudly proclaims.

"No, Frederick. Let me be the one to duel her." Chrom takes out the Falchion and steps forward, but got halted by Frederick.

"No, milord. Raimi here is the leader the Feroxi Knight, I am also a fellow veteran knight, it's only appropriate that we have a duel. Plus, your Falchion is a sword, and sword loses to lance in the weapon triangle. You'd be at a disadvantage if you duel her." Frederick reasons. "It's not that I don't trust your skill, milord. But just to be safe, let me be the one to duel her."

"…" Chrom wants to object, but Frederick spoke the truth. "Then, be cautious, Frederick." Chrom had no choice but to entrust the duel to Frederick.

Everyone then spread out to create space for the duel…

"Now, now. Please don't be so hasty…" Suddenly, Virion jumps in between Frederick and Raimi and demand them to stop. "Why don't we keep it civilized, like the civilized human being we are?"

"Virion. I ask you to get out of the way. This is not a problem that concerns a foreigner like you." Raimi points the tip of her spear at Virion.

"Please, low down your weapon." Virion pushes away the spear. "I have an idea to solve this problem without resorting to violent."

"And what would that be, good sir?" Frederick puts down his weapon.

"Heaven's will." Virion points to the sky.

"Heaven's will?" Frederick frowns. "What do you mean by that?"

"May I borrow your lance, sir Knight?" Virion holds out his hand to Frederick.

"Uhm… Yes, sure. Here" Frederick gives the lance to Virion.

Virion then thrusts the lance into the ground, bury it deep into the snow. Next, he takes out a handkerchief and ties it into the spear.

"Virion. Can you please stop fooling around?" Raimi plucks the spear off the ground and throws it back to Frederick.

"Oh no, Raimi, my dear. I am certainly not fooling around." Virion waves his hands around, mimicking the action of a conductor. "Now, if you don't mind, sir Knight. Can you move back, say… 150 paces away from here?"

"Excuse me? Did you just tell to move away?" Frederick has to ask Virion again to confirm the request, since he doesn't understand the intention of Virion from such strange request.

"Yes, about 150 paces would be good." Virion nods.

Curious as to what Virion intended to do, Frederick move exactly 150 paces away from where he was standing. The others, while also question the actual meaning of the action, don't raise any objection at all, and just stand there to witness the event unfold.

"Yes, right there." Virion signals Frederick. "Then next, hold your spear and makes it stand up. Now set up the spear horizontally, so that it can stand up right like a pole."

Frederick does just as requested.

"Good. Now you can come back here." Virion waves his hand to tell him to come back. Frederick does just that.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen." Virion claps his hands to gather attention. He then goes to explain what he is going to do. "From where I'm standing to the spear standing way over there, is exactly 150 paces. In archery, the standard longest distance from the archer to target is 90 paces. Most extraordinary archers recorded in history had only able to shoot from 120 paces away." He pauses a little before continuing. "It is literally _impossible_ to shoot at a target from 150 paces away, much less shooting a handkerchief tied to a lance, in a snowing condition. Impossible, unthinkable, out of the question!" He emphasizes.

"Don't tell me you…"Sully seems to have caught up with Virion, so do Frederick and Raimi. The others are a little slow behind.

"Yes, my fair lady." Virion makes an elegant bow to Sully. "Right here and now! I, the great Virion, will shoot an arrow straight through that handkerchief, with the help of heaven's will!" He proudly proclaims.

"Virion! You are wasting everyone's time here. I demand that you stop this foolish act this instance!" Raimi growls. She was going to go pick up lance to give it back to Frederick and apologize for her companion's delusional action, but someone put their hand on her shoulder and stops her. It was Sumia.

"It is not foolish." Sumia says, with a confident look on her face. "He really is going to do it, and he will succeed."

"How do you know?" Raimi asks. Now, she really is worried.

Sumia smiles at Raimi and shows her a small flower, a small flower with all its petals plugged off. "The flower fortune told me so." She says.

Raimi widen her eyes. There is not a single sense of doubt in Sumia's voice. Was she just as delusional as Virion, or is she really just betting on the ability of someone she has never met before, or is it something else? Whatever it is, Sumia has managed to convince Raimi to stay her hands and watch Virion shooting on behalf of the heaven.

Virion puts an arrow to the bow's string, he slowly pulls the string, he closes one of his eyes and aim carefully at his target. It was only a few seconds, but it feels like he has been aiming for an hour straight. Then finally, both of his open wide, and with a twang of bow, the arrow leaves the string and flies straight at the lance, drills a large hole on the handkerchief, tears it off the silver lance, and flies a small distance more before falling to the ground.

"That, ladies and gentlemen, is Heaven's will." Like an actor before exiting the stage, Virion gracefully bows to his audience.

Sumia claps her hands nonstop and runs toward Virion. "That was amazing!" She praises him.

"Please, my cutie. That was Heaven's will, of course it is amazing." Saying it like it was a daily activity to him, Virion flips his hair, nonchalantly.

Still couldn't believe what he just saw, Chrom blinks a few blinks, and he still clearly sees the arrow the arrow with a torn handkerchief. "Just-just who are you?" Chrom turns to Virion.

"Ha! Is the prince intrigued? Of course you are-it's only natural. I am myth and legend! I am he who strides large across history's greatest stage! The man who puts the 'arch' in 'archer'! I am the amazing, the magnificent, the great Virion!" Finally, the man had managed to pull off his spectacular introduction. Then, he turns to Raimi. "Now, Raimi, my dear. Can't you make an exception for prince Chrom and his companions here?" He asks.

"Urgh… Now I can see why the khan had taken so much interest in you, sir Virion…" Facing with such inhuman skill, what choice does Raimi have left except for complying with Virion's request. "… Please, this way, prince Chrom." She steps aside to shows the way to enter the Longfort to Chrom. Then she calls out to one of her subordinates nearby. "Hey, you there! Go and retrieve the lance for our honor guests."

"Let's go, everyone." Chrom calls out to his friends and starts moving.

Virion approaches Sully "Pray, my fair lady." He speaks up. "I still haven't had the honor of knowing your name." He asks her one more time.

"Urgh…" Sully sighs. "It's Sully, damn it." She answers his question to be done with it and shoos him away.

"Ah… Sully, what a beautiful name, befitting such a beautiful woman." Virion praises her.

"Har har, you're funny!" Vaike laughs out loud at Virion. "Haven't you ever of the phrase "To sully one's name"? Argh!" And got a boot from Sully right in the middle of his face. "Hey! What did I do?!" Vaike yells.

"Being an idiot! Thank you very much." Sully glares menacingly at Vaike and walks away before she completely loses it.

* * *

_Sanjima: Hello everyone, thank you for finishing chapter 9. Virion was supposed to appear alongside Sully, but I changed it and made his offcial appearance to be in this chapter, and to be honest, I was surprised at how much I seem to enjoy writing his dialogue, since I benched him as soon as I could select units in the game XD. And I'm also quite puzzled, because I enjoy Stahl's personality and his supports a lot, but I can't seem to think up a way to properly insert him into the dialogues, better think up a way to fix this problem in future chapters as soon as possible. Oh, and aside the obvious Great Wall of China reference, if someone thought "Virion's feat of archery from 150 paces away" sounds familliar, it's a homage (read: complete rip-off) to an event from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. So, please look forward to the next chapter, everyone! _


	10. Emmeryn's belief

**Chapter 10: Emmeryn's belief.**

In the palace of Ylisstol, there is a great library that contains tons of books of different kinds, from simple picture books for children, to magic tomes, to forbidden ancient scrolls hidden away from the public's eyes. With the vast knowledge it offers, many Exalts in the past had come to the library in times of troubles.

Couldn't shake off her feeling of uneasiness after hearing the strange tale of the creature called "Risen", Emmeryn came to the library to in hope to find some useful knowledge from the age-old documents. Following right behind Emmeryn like a shadow, is her loyal bodyguard, Phila. The two of them go back and forth from one of the library to the other days after days.

And one night, their search finally shows to be fruitful, they came across an old document, recording the exploits of the First Exalt.

Around 1000 years before Emmeryn's reign as the Exalt. The continent of Ylisse, known as Akaneia back then, went through a great catastrophe, when a great dragon tried to take over the whole continent by force. Grima was the name of the Dragon, the record stated. Aside from its name, the record doesn't write much else about its appearance nor its origin. Though, the dragon's horrible evil acts were recorded in details.

When Grima first appeared, it showed its destructive power by destroying an entire nation, scorching everything in its path, leaving nothing but ashes behind. A once green-filled nation became a wasteland of death overnight. Using that nation as base, Grima began to expand its terror.

Fearing its seemingly invincible destructive force, every nations left of the continent joined together to form the largest coalition in history to go up against Grima. The First Exalt, descendant of the Hero King Marth, and owner of the legendary Falchion and Fire Emblem, was chosen as the coalition's grand commander. This long period of constant warring for mankind's survival were later known as the Scism.

To deal with the coalition, Grima conjured up an army of his own. The army consisted of creatures that resemble corpses with menacing glowing red eyes and dirt black skins, whenever this creature breathes, black smoke comes out of its mouth. The people of the time called this army as "The army of corpse soldiers".

After reading to this part, Phila can't help but notice the resemblance of this 'corpse soldier' and  
'the Risen'. "Your Grace." She calls out to Emmeryn. "Could it be that the Risen are…"

"Let's not make any hasty guess, Phila." Emmeryn says, she then turns a few pages and shows to Phila. "Here, perhaps you should read this part next."

Phila obediently does as ordered.

After many hard-earned victories, the coalition managed to corner Grima. Just before the final battle, through the Awakening ritual, the first Exalt was granted the power of Naga to unlock the true potential of the Falchion, and was able to fight Grima on equal ground. But, defeating Grima once and for all proved to be impossible, and in the end, he was only able to seal away the dragon. Once Grima was sealed away, its army of corpse soldiers immediately turned to dust and faded into oblivion. Many sacrifices were made, and many tears were shed, but in the end, victory belongs to the human kind.

"This…" Phila frowns.

"As you've read from the passage… The corpse soldiers disappeared along with their master." Emmeryn says.

"Then the Risen is an entirely new threat, never seen before in history, not the corpse soldiers?" Phila sweats.

"No, Phila…" Emmeryn closes her eyes and think. "I too think the Risen are the corpse soldiers…" She says.

"But, then…"

"Yes… Their appearance after a thousand years may have something to do with their master." Emmeryn says.

"No way…" Phila sweats even more, the very thought send shivers down her spine. "B-but how…?"

Emmeryn sighs. "Oh… I wish I knew, Phila…" Her shaken voice shows that she is just as nervous about the whole thing as Phila. "Though… if it does come down to it…" Emmeryn slowly opens her eyes. "…Then I don't think just an alliance with Regna Ferox can solve this threat."

"But if Grima were to really come back to our world, then surely we can seal it away one more time just like the First Exalt." Phila says.

"…I wished it were that simple, Phila." Emmeryn turns a few more pages and shows to Phila. "Here are the notes concerning the Awakening ritual."

Phila proceeds to read the notes.

The basic requirement to perform the Awakening is the possession of the complete Fire Emblem with all five of its gemstones installed on the shield, in its complete form. The next requirement is that one must perform the ritual at the holiest location under Naga's influence. The third requirement is that one must possess the holy Exalted blood in their veins before they are able grant the right to recite the oath to summon Naga, as follows:

"_Hear me, Naga! I bear proof of our sacred covenant! In the name of the exalted blood, I ask for the divine dragon's power! Baptize me in fire, that I may become your true son!"_

Then finally, Naga will bathe them in her holy flame and test their conviction, if their souls and will are not strong enough, the candidate will fail and be burnt to death.

"This is problematic…" Phila says.

"Yes, yes it is…" Emmeryn closes the document and puts it back into its rightful place on the bookshelf. "Shall we go and take a look at the Fire Emblem?" She asks Phila.

"Ah, yes, your Grace…" Phila responds. Emmeryn then turns and head to the library's exit, with Phila follows right behind her.

The Fire Emblem, also known as the Shield of Seals, is one of the national treasures of Ylisse, alongside the Falchion. The Fire Emblem was used by the first Exalt of Ylisse to defeat Grima, but due to the Emblem's overwhelming power, four of the jewels were removed from it afterwards. Ylisse gets to keep the shield and the silver gem, Argent. The four other gems, Gules, Azure, Vert and Sable are given to other nations to protect.

"Hm…" Emmeryn has only took a few steps away, and she sees a familiar boy with brown hair, immersing himself to the tons of books on a nearby table. "Ricken?" She calls out to him.

"E-Emmeryn?" The boy, Ricken, jumps up from the surprise. "I-I mean, y-your Grace…" he stutters.

"Now, how many time have I tell you before?" Emmeryn gets closer to Ricken and pets his head. "There's no need for formality between us."

"Y-yes, your-Emmeryn…" Ricken takes a step back, away from Emmeryn, he means no disrespect to her, but Ricken dislikes it when people treat him like a little child.

"Alright…" Emmeryn looks over to the pile of books on the table. "What are you doing here at this hour, Ricken? Studying to improve your spell casting?" She asks.

"Yes, that and doing researches to keep up with Miriel." Ricken answers. "Miriel is like a walking dictionary with her vast knowledge, while I am just… me. Our difference is so great that I feel ashamed being called her assistant." He frowns. "I want to study a lot more, and fast! So I can keep up with Miriel and her revolutionary researches. And not just Miriel, I want to be of help to you, to Chrom, to the people of Ylisse, too!" He declares.

"That's very noble of you, Ricken." Emmeryn smiles. "But you're still young, no need to push yourself too hard. Remember to find some times to rest and play, too."

"I'm no longer a kid, Emmeryn. I know how to take care of myself. I appreciate you worrying about me though." Ricken then gets back to his seat. "I'll read a little more before calling it a night."

"Then I'll withdraw for now. See you again tomorrow, Ricken." Emmeryn waves goodbye at Ricken, then exit the library together with Phila, this time for real.

Ricken wait a few minutes after Emmeryn and Phila get out of the library to confirm that they are gone for real, then he closes the book he was reading and walks over to the bookshelf he saw Emmeryn and Phila standing at earlier.

"Now where was it?" Ricken searches the bookshelf for the document. "Ah, found it!" He takes the document off the shelf. "Recording of the First Exalt's exploits, eh?" He mutters to himself and begins immersing himself into the document.

…

As Emmeryn and Phila walks down the hallway towards the room keeping Ylisse's nation treasures. Emmeryn's mind wanders about various things, and she absentmindedly mutters to her bodyguard. "Phila… After reading that document, what is your opinion about Grima?"

"Your Grace. I think of him as true evil, a malevolent entity that we humans have to get rid of at all cost." Phila answers without hesitation.

"… Is that so?" Emmeryn looks over to Phila, her eyes filled with sadness. "I had hoped that your answer was different…" She sounds disappointed.

"Was my answer that unsatisfactory?" Phila flusters, she doesn't know what was wrong with her answer, she honestly just said what she thinks about the matter.

"You see, Phila. I want to believe… No, I believe that no one was born evil. It has to be due to the upbringing, or perhaps due to circumstances that many were forced to walk the path of evil." Emmeryn says. "… And I was just wondering, if such belief can be applied on this Grima."

"But, your Grace… The whole continent had to join forces to take on Grima. If Grima wasn't pure evil, then the people of the whole continent wouldn't be so united with the hope to eliminate it for good." Phila reasons.

"…" Emmeryn stops walking, she closed her eyes and thinks for a brief moment. "Phila…" She calls out to her bodyguard one more time, with a low and shaken voice that make it almost seems like she's going to cry. "…What is your opinion about the last Exalt?"

"That…" Emmeryn's question stunned Phila. The last Exalt, in other words, Emmeryn's late father. His rule was brief, but it was a rule that was filled with bloodshed. From his expedition against Plegia, to his passing of the military laws, to his decision to push all the nation's resources into war, they were nothing of sort of madness. The consequences suffer from his rule was so severe that 15 years later, the Halidom of Ylisse still haven't been able to return to its former glory. To everyone, he was a villain, a tyrant; but to Emmeryn, he was a father. "…" Phila stays silent, she honestly doesn't know how to answer Emmeryn's question.

Emmeryn turns to look at Phila with a disappointed look. "…I see" She murmurs, then looks out of the windows. "Conflicts are born because people can't understand each other." She says. "I loathe conflict, Phila. I loathe conflict more than anything in my life. I dream of a world where everyone and anyone can live in peace and harmony. Would it be wrong of me to wish for that? Would it be wrong of me to wish to be able to understand everyone's feelings? Would it be wrong of me to wish to befriend with such an entity like Grima?"

"...…" Phila silently looks at Emmeryn from behind.

From outside the window, the moonlight shines down on Emmeryn. Such a delicate and fragile figure yet such big, noble dream she has.

"I-I'm sorry, Phila…" Emmeryn shakes her head. "I was blabbing nonsense again." She then slightly turns her head to look at Phila. "Now, shall we continue what we're doing?" She smiles.

"Yes, your Grace…" Phila replies.

The two then continue walking down the long hallway toward the room that keeps the Fire Emblem. While walking, Phila keep thinking back to the image of Emmeryn looking out the window as she walks.

After such conversation with her master, she really questions her value of a Pegasus knight of House Ylisse. She's been serving House Ylisse for as long as she could remember, and acted as Emmeryn's bodyguard just as long. She's always proud of that fact and thinks that she's knew everything she needed to know about her master. She always knew that her master was gentle and kind, but she never knew her master was… even willingly to share her kindness with a creature that isn't human…

This may sounds disrespectful, but Emmeryn's role as the Exalt was only to act as the head figure of the Halidom, she doesn't need to actually do anything, all of the other officials can take care of the nation's matter for her. Everybody knows that. Even Emmeryn herself knows that. Yet ever since the day she took the throne, she has been working tirelessly for the good of the people, disbanding the army, cutting taxes, rewriting laws, visiting small villages in the country and giving speeches about her ideal of harmony.

In her first days as the Exalt, her decisions and actions were greatly opposed my many, peasants and nobles and officials alike. During one of her speeches, she even got stones thrown at her and got injured. Phila remembers that one time very clearly, Emmeryn had to stay in bed with her head cover in bandages in days, even her little brother, Chrom, told her to quit everything and just leave them to the official, but she just simply smiled at her little brother, and said "One cannot let hatred rule their heart. I must speak of hope!" Such strong belief, coming from a 10 years old girl. Even after 15 years as the Exalt, that belief of her hasn't swayed even a tiny bit, she still holds strong to her belief and keeps doing what she thinks to be the best for the people,

A world where there is no suffering, a world where everybody can all live happily together in harmony. Maybe when you're still a little child, you once had a dream similar to that too, but as you grow up, going through life's hardships and enduring many pains and suffering, you'd realize that that dream is nothing but a mere dream, and you'd eventually forget about it. Yet, Emmeryn, a grown woman but still clings to that dream. Many may think that it is childish, that it is naïve of her to even think of such a thing. But that's what made the people of Ylisse love about her, that's what made Phila loves about her.

Isn't that the important thing here? That Phila loves Emmeryn? If she really loves her master, then she would do anything to make her master's wish comes true, even if it is impossible, right? If she really loves her master, then she would do anything to make her master's wish comes true, even if it means _her death_, right?

"…Phila?"

"Huh…?" The voice of her master brings Phila back to reality. Phila looks around the place, the two of them have arrived at the room keeping the Fire Emblem since whence.

"Are you feeling alright, Phila?" Emmeryn expresses concern for her friend. "If you're tired, then you are free to go back to your room and finish for the day."

"N-no, Your Grace." Phila straighten herself up. "I- was just lost in thought for a little. I'm not tired at all. Please, allow me to continue to accompany you for the night."

"Alright then, if you insist." Emmeryn smiles at Phila. She turns to the knights guarding the door to the room and orders them to let her inside. The knights bow to her and do as ordered.

Emmeryn and Phila walk into the room. Much to their surprise, they see a familiar face, observing the Fire Emblem in the middle of the room.

"The Hierarch?" Emmeryn calls out to the man.

"O-oh… Your Grace!" He jumps up from being surprised by Emmeryn and Phila's sudden appearance. "W-what a-are Your Grace doing here at t-this late at night?"

"I am here to have check on the Fire Emblem." Emmeryn smiles at the Hierarch. "Are you here for the same reason, per chance?" She asks.

"A-ah, y-yes." He stutters. "Th-the Fire Emblem i-is our Nation's Sac-sacred treasure after all… W-we need to ch-check on it to s-see if it's still i-intact every once in a while, r-right Your Grace?" His eyes nervously glance all over the room for some reasons. There are also very visible traces of sweats running down his forehead and neck.

"Um… Hierarch, are you feeling alright? You don't look so well…" Seeing the hierarch seems to be fatigued, Emmeryn asks with a worrying tone.

"I-I, ah, I…" The Hierarch averts his gaze away from Emmeryn and his body shaken. He seems awfully nervous.

"Hierarch…" Emmeryn takes a step closer to the Hierarch. "…I know that we haven't talked to each other in a while, but you don't have to be so conscious about our social ranks all of the sudden." She extends her hands and holds the Hierarch's hands in hers. "You've been helping me with everything since my first days as the Exalt. You're like a second father to me. It really pains me to see you acting so distance… Please, just treat me like how you used to."

"N-no, Your Grace… I-it's not like that…"

"Then are you troubled by something? Please, tell me. Perhaps I can do something for you?"

"I…" The Hierarch slowly turns to looks Emmeryn directly in the eyes. Emmeryn just gently smiles at him and waits for his responds. "Actually… I-it's nothing that you should feel t-troubled, Your Grace. I just feel stressed lately, is all… Being able t-to talk with you l-like this already made me feel much better."

"Is that so?" Emmeryn says. "I'm glad it wasn't anything serious."

"Th-thank you, Your Grace. I-it's getting late already, I-I better get back t-to my room…" The Hierarch bows to Emmeryn and hastily walks away and exits the room.

"If you ever feel stressed again, feel free to find me. I'm more than glad to keep you company…" Emmeryn tells the Hierarch and waves goodbye to him as he walks out of the room.

After the Hierarch can no longer be seen, Phila speaks up to Emmeryn. "The Hierarch seemed to be awfully tense…" She says.

"I don't blame him, Phila…" Emmeryn says. "Things have been hectic lately. Not just the constant harassing from Plegia, but also the new threat of the Risen. It's no wonder that the Hierarch feels so stressed…" She turns to look at the Fire Emblem. "Though, even when he is so stressed, he still thinks about the good of the nation and went to check on the Fire Emblem. With such loyal subordinates like him, and you, and Chrom's Shepherds, and everyone else, I must be the luckiest Exalt to have ever lived…"

* * *

_Sanjima: Hello, everyone, thank you for finishing chapter 10. After following Chrom's and Scrooge's journey in previous chapters, I thought I'd write a chapter about Emmeryn to develop her and her bodyguard, Phila. I want to write gentle and kind Emmeryn that made people around her can't help but feel at ease in her company, to contrast with the Mad King Gangrel, whose character I'll also try to develop as much as I can when I reach a certain chapter in the future. I hope what I wrote didn't make Emmeryn feels too much like a purity Sue, but if I did, then please forgive this useless me. Oh, and Ricken made a small appearance in this chapter, he hasn't done much for now, but be assured that I have big plans for him! So, please look forward to the next chapter, everyone!_


	11. The things you dream of

**Chapter 11: The things you dream of...**

"_We are proud members of the Pegasus Knight Squad. Our mission is to safe guard the borders and to protects the people of the Halidom of Ylisse from all harms." ~  
_The code of honor of Ylisse's Pegasus Knight Squad.

…

…

"…Hey, Cordelia." My friend called out to me.

"What is it?" I responded to her, trying to say as little as possible, since our squad were marching through the sky, and whispering among the ranks isn't encouraged.

"Maybe it's just me, but I don't feel so good about this mission…" She said. I didn't turn to look at her, but judging from her voice, I could tell that she was feeling nervous from the coming mission. I don't blame her though, she's one of the newer recruit after all.

So, not giving her comment a second thought, I just casually responded to her with a little encouragement "You're just nervous." I said, still with as little words as possible.

"I-I know that I'm nervous since this is my first actual mission…" She said. "…But, this isn't just some… normal nervousness I'm feeling here. I feel that there's something, I don't know, some kind of ominous feeling about this mission." Now she's just being too imaginative…

"You're just thinking too much…" I brushed off whatever she just said, the last thing I need is someone telling me that the upcoming mission won't end well. I need to focus my mind and perform well in this mission, I'll not accept anything less than perfect.

"I've heard that squad 4 and squad 5 got sent on a similar mission, too…" She continued. I'd tell her to keep quiet, but her shaken voice somehow made me unable to do so. I stayed quiet and continued to listen to what she had to say. "…And I heard that they never came back."

That was the first time I've heard such a thing. I didn't pay it much thought and kept silent. It probably was just some myths to scare off new recruits, that' what I thought. "It probably just some myths to scare off new recruits like you." I told her what I think. "If you're scared, then stay behind me, I'll protect you."

"Really? You'll really protect me?" She said, her tone of voice indicated that she had cheered up somewhat. "You really really will protect me?!" She said it one more time.

Was it just me or was voice sound closer? If she's getting closer, our Pegasi will have trouble flapping their wings. "I said I would, so…" I turned to face her, intended to tell to keep her Pegasus away from mine, but…

_Then why didn't you protect me?!_

Wha-?!

An arrow pierced right through Luce's head from behind, spattering blood all over my face. Yet, she kept moving towards me and shoved her bloody face closer to mine.

_Why didn't you protect me? WHY DIDN'T YOU PROTECT ME?! WHY DIDN'T YOU PROTECT ME?!_

Suddenly, arrows pierced through the wings of my Pegasus.

The Pegasus let out a painful yells from being injured and fell down to the ground, knocking me off her back.

I staggered, trying to get up from the fall.

…

… Did I… just step on something? It was… squishy, and it smelled like…

_It smelled like a corpse, right?_

!

T-this is… Luce? And that's Ivy… And Tanya, Aida… And… They are all…

_They are all dead…_

…Dead? They are all… dead?!

_And it was all thanks to you!_

It wasn't supposed to be like this…

It was supposed to be just a simple mission…

It was supposed to just eradicating some mere group of bandits…

We were supposed to return to the camp and celebrate our victory after everything is done…

How did things turn out like this?!

I…

I…

_Cordelia…_

I… never asked for this…

_Why did you run away…_

I… I had no other choice… I…

_You left us to our deaths!_

No, I…

_YOU MURDERED US!_

No, I… I…

_YOU MURDERER!_

_Murderer!_

_Murderer!_

_Murderer!_

No… Please, everyone… What choice did I have? I almost died there too!

_But you still lived… You lived by selling us out… _

No…

_Stop lying to yourself… You know it damn well that you don't deserve to live…_

No…

_You should have just died right then and there along with us…_

No…

_You don't deserve to live!_

No…

_You should have just died!_

No…

_You betrayed us all like that… You pushed us all to our deaths like that… And then continued to live on like nothing happened… You even have the nerve to lecture someone else about trust and betrayal? GO ROT IN HELL!_

PLEASE! Leave me alone! Just leave me alone! I beg of you! Please, go away!

_Die…_

Please…

_Die…_

Please, no more…

_DIE!DIE!DIE!DIE!DIE! DIE!DIE!DIE!DIE!DIE!DIE!DIE!DIE!DIE!DIE!DIE!DIE!DIE!DIE!DIE!_

GO AWAY!

…

"GO AWAY!" She screams at the top of her lungs. Her eyes instantly open as wide as she could to wake herself from the nightmare. Startled, she sits up and frantically look around.

She's in the middle of a forest in the dead of the night, she's not in a plain open field in midday. Surrounding her is a complete silence, not the screams of her dead comrades. Next to her is just a little campfire, her sleeping Pegasus, and a man named Scrooge, not mountains of weapons and corpses of her dead comrades. She's back to reality, not in her nightmare.

She holds out her hands to in front of her face. There's nothing there… There's absolutely nothing there…

No blood…

No blood… No blood at all, she reassures herself. Her hands are stained with the blood of her dead comrades no more…

"Gods…" She brings her hands to her face. "Please, no more… Just… No more…" Streams of tears slowly crawl down her cheek. "Please, no more… Please, leave me alone…" She repeatedly mutters those words to herself. Even though she knows that it wasn't the truth, that it was only her imagination that her comrades blamed her, she just couldn't shake off that feeling, that feeling of guilt for being the sole survivor of her entire squad.

"…" From the corner of her eyes, Cordelia peeks to see Scrooge silently holding the piece of cloth out to her. "…What is it?" Suppressing her panic, she asks him with a shaken voice.

"….." Scrooge turns his face away from Cordelia. "…Just in case you need it." He says.

"… T-thanks, Scrooge." Cordelia takes the cloth. She sniffs, blows her nose and quickly wipes away her tears. Finished, Cordelia gives the cloth back to Scrooge without saying a word. She then pulls her knees into her chest and rests her face atop it.

"..."

"..."

The two just sit there for a while. No words were spoken. They just sit there, doing nothing in particular. Occasionally, Scrooge would reach out to a small tree branch and throws it into the campfire to keep the fire burning. But that was it, no more words were spoken.

After a while, finally had enough with the silence, Cordelia with her face still not lifting up from her knees, speaks up. "… Aren't you going to say something?"

"…What do you want me to say?" Scrooge asks back, still not looking at her directly.

"I don't know…Just say something, anything will do…" Cordelia tells him, her still a little shaken. "…Like, why you were still awake at this hour for example…"

"I also had trouble sleeping…" He answers.

"Is that so?"

"It is so…"

"…"

"…"

The awkward silence continues for a little more.

"…" Scrooge turns his face to look at the troubled Cordelia for a second. He takes a deep breath in, and tells her. "Thank you…"

"For what?" Surprised, Cordelia lifts her face up to look at Scrooge.

"For saving my life, twice… And never had the chance to thank you properly…" Scrooge awkwardly looks away again. "… And I'm sorry, too…"

"And sorry for what?" Cordelia gets closer to take a better look Scrooge's face.

"For… hitting you… of course…"

"I don't remember you ever hitting on me?"

"No! Not that kind of hitting! Don't you remember that night at the village…" Scrooge turns back and almost hit his head right into Cordelia's face. "Whoah! Y-your face is really close, Cordelia!" He embarrassingly blurts out.

"Heh…" A small smile returns on Cordelia's face. She withdraws a few steps away from Scrooge. "I already forgot about that stupid ploy of yours, so don't worry." She says. Then, she looks up into the sky and sighs. "… I probably deserved it anyway." She mutters to herself.

"…" Scrooge reaches out to another tree branch and throws it into the fire. "You know…" He says sheepishly. "Your comrade in the heaven must be really proud of you."

"…"

"I mean… It would be really easy to just give up and run away, but you didn't. You really determined to put an end to the bandits, and to protect the innocent people of a village that you are unfamiliar with, even with all those injuries and all alone. Not many have such a strong will after going through such tragedy…" He explains.

"Technically, I wasn't alone. Anna was there with me, too. And there were also the villagers." Cordelia smiles wryly.

"Well, that… You get the point…" Scrooge scratches his head.

"Thank you, Scrooge…" Cordelia looks at Scrooge in the eyes and makes a genuine smile. "Thank you…"

"Well, er… Y-you're welcome." He blushes.

"Now, enough with all that depressing stuff." Cordelia claps her hands. "Why don't we talk about interesting things? Like, do you have a dream, Scrooge?"

"Dream, eh?" Scrooge strokes his chin. "Well, I have this recurring dream about dying in a fire…"

"Not that kind of dream, stupid." Cordelia smacks him in the head. "A dream is something you aspire to be, something you want to come true, got it?"

"Okay then, why don't you tell me about your dream first?" Scrooge says.

"Really? You really want me to tell you my dream?" Cordelia puts her hands on her cheeks, swings back and forth and blushes madly. "Eeeek!" She shrieks gleefully.

"Urgh…" Scrooge looks at her funnily, something tells him that he won't like where this is going.

"You see, I have a huge crush on this man…" Cordelia confesses.

"I knew it!" Scrooge mutters to himself.

"Did you say something?

"Nope!"

"Anyway…" Cordelia goes on to talk about her crush nonstop.

…

An hour or so later…

"… But alas, he is a prince of an entire kingdom, while I am but a mere member of the Pegasus Knight squad." Cordelia sighs. "My love will forever remain unrequited, even though it just keep growing and growing day by day…"

"… Déjà vu much?" Scrooge sweats. "If you love him so much, why don't you just confess to him and be done with it?"

"Didn't you hear a word I just say?" Cordelia sighs. "He's a prince! He's totally out of my league."

"Urgh…" Scrooge sighs. "Then get over it. You're still young, you still have a long future ahead of you. There's going to be thousands of good men you'd see in your life. You're bound to meet a perfect match for you someday." He says.

"Yes, I hope so, too…" Cordelia sighs.

"You sigh a little too much for someone so young, Cordelia." Scrooge throws another tree branch into the fire.

"Ditto." Cordelia jabs back at him. "So, Scrooge, what about you? Surely you've fallen in love before, right?" She asks, curiously.

"Nope." He answers instantly with only one single simple word. "I've never love any woman other than my mother."

"Eh? So you're a momma boy?" Cordelia giggles. "That's surprising coming from you." She says.

"Yes, and I'm proud to be one." Scrooge smiles. "When I was little, my mother would buy a new book and read it to me almost everyday, she would go and explain to me anything I don't understand, no matter how complex, random or stupid my questions were." As he continues to talk about his mother, the smile on his face also slowly turns sour. "…Whenever I feel like eating something, my mother would know and go cook the food I wanted for dinner, even though I never said anything to her. And every night, she would sit next to my bed and sing a gentle lullaby until I fall asleep… Her gentle smile is the most beautiful picture I've seen in my life…" Scrooge pauses, looks up at the sky and let out a sigh. "I… miss her a lot…" He says.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry…" Thought that Scrooge was saying his mother passed away, Cordelia apologizes.

"Um… Huh, wait!" Scrooge smacks her in the head. "My mother is still alive, for crying out loud!"

"Oh, my bad…" She apologizes again. "The way you talk about your mother so fondly made me thought… Again, I apologize for my foolish misunderstanding."

"That's alright."

"So, er, you said that you were finding a way home, but you also said that you are not a Plegian. Is your home further west of Plegia?" Cordelia asks.

"No…" Scrooge answers with downcast eyes. "I travel west in hope to find a way home… But… To e honest, I don't know where my home is… I don't even know if I still have a home to return to…"

"…Scrooge?"

"…It's been years since I last came home… It's been years since I last saw my mother… It's been years since I last heard her voice" His voice trembles. "…I even forgot what her voice sounds like… And I'm not even sure if the face I remember is her face anymore…" Two small tears become visible at the corner of his eyes. "…Damn, I feel awful…"

"…" Cordelia silently approaches Scrooge from behind, her arms wrap around him and she gently hugs him. "It's alright…" She gently strokes his head. "It's alright… Don't cry, don't cry…" She whispers into his ears.

"… Cordelia." Scrooge taps on her arms.

"Hm…?"

"… Can you let go of me, please?" Scrooge mutters. "This is too embarrassing for me to bear…"

"Ah, oh… I'm sorry." Cordelia quickly let go of Scrooge. Now that she thinks about it, that hug was both really unnecessary and embarrassing. Her face slightly blushes from the thought.

"…"

"…"

The awkward silence continues…

"Ah, er…" Scrooge scratches his head, desperately looking for something to talk. "You know, it's… pretty late already. Why don't we just go back to sleep?"

"Ah, yes, let's…" Cordelia immediately lies down to the ground and roll to a side that she sure Scrooge can't see her face. "G-good night, Scrooge…"

"Yes, good night, Cordelia…"

"..."

"…"

"…Scrooge?" Cordelia nervously calls out to Scrooge one last time.

"…Yes?" She hears Scrooge answers, but she doesn't turn to see him, so she isn't sure if he is actually trying to sleep or he is still sitting next to the campfire to keep the fire burning.

"…I'm sure you'll find a way home and see your mother." She reassures him. It's just empty words, but that's the best thing Cordelia could do to encourage him right now.

"…" No answer comes from Scrooge. Maybe he's thinking back to his home? Maybe he just repeating Cordelia's kind words again in his mind? Or maybe he's simply just trying to go to sleep. Whatever is going on in his mind, Scrooge decided to just stay silent.

"Good night, Scrooge."

"…Good night, Cordelia."

…

* * *

_Sanjima: Hellp there, everyone. Thank you for finishing chapter 11. Please allow me to go on ranting a little, since I've been quite stressed lately... I was able to update this fic fairly quickly with the first 9 chapters, but since chapter 10, I've started school again, and found myself to have less and less time to write, even though I want to write so much! Chapter 11 doesn't have that many words, but it still took me a whole week to finish it. Over the course of this week, I've had ideas popping up here and there everywhere, but when I had the actual time to write, the ideas just escaped my mind. It's frustrating!_

_Sanjima: Sorry for the rant, I'm finished now. The next chapter probably won't come around in a week, but I promise I'll try to update as soon as possible, and I'll also promise the next chapter won't have as much "..." in it. So, please look forward to the next chapter, everyone!  
_


	12. The east-khan of Regna Ferox

**Chapter 12: The east-khan of Regna Ferox**

After allowing Chrom and the Shepherds to cross the border into Regna Ferox's territory, Raimi ordered a soldier to send notice to her lord at castle Ferox about Chrom's presence.

Chrom requested to meet the khan personally, but Raimi had to remain guard at the border, so she couldn't lead Chrom to the khan herself, fortunately Virion volunteered to be the guide.

A few days later, Chrom and the Shepherds arrived at castle Ferox. Virion continued to lead them to the palace, and to the throne room. There, at the center of the room, stands the East-Khan of Regna Ferox, Flavia, waiting for their arrival.

"You're late, Virion!" Flavia bellows at Virion.

"Well, please forgive my tardiness, your Excellency." Virion gracefully bows to Flavia. "I was late because I lost myself thinking about you on the way…"

"I can live fine without your lame flirting, Virion." Flavia casually smacks Virion in the head, Chrom and others find the sight to be both amusing and strange. From what they've heard about the khans, everyone was expecting a veteran fearsome warrior with no-nonsense personality. While the woman standing before them do have the august presence of a monarch, it is quite different from what they had in mind.

Flavia then walks past Virion and stands face-to-face with Chrom. She takes a quick look at him from tip to toe. "So, you must be prince Chrom of House Ylisse, eh?" She asks.

"Yes, that would be me." Chrom answers. "You Grace, I am here today…"

Flavia suddenly draws her sword and attack Chrom. In a blink of an eye, Chrom could feel the coldness of the steel sword pressed against his neck.

"!"

Instinctively, Chrom draws the Falchion and pushes Flavia's sword away. With the momentum gained from her sword pushed away, Flavia spins around and continues to attack Chrom again from the other side. Chrom quickly holds the Falchion vertically along his back to guard against the attack. The two swords collide, producing a deafening noise that echoes throughout the throne room. The two goes into a weapon deadlock, but Chrom immediately got overwhelmed by Flavia's strength and got weighed down to one knee.

"Stop that this instance, you mad woman!" Vaike yells and jumps at Flavia. He swings his axe down between Chrom and Flavia to separate the two. Flavia slightly moves backward a step to dodge Vaike's attack. Immediately when Vaike's feet touch the ground, Flavia's spins and hit Vaike's nape with the hilt of her sword, knocking him down to the ground.

After Vaike is knocked down, another immediately jumps forward and attacks Flavia, this time it's Sully, with Stahl right by her side. From above, Sully thrust her javelin straight down at Flavia's head, while Stahl slides on the floor, slashing at Flavia's legs. Not even glancing at her opponents for a second, Flavia immediately counterattack. She spins another round, swinging her sword upward and brings it down at the tip of Sully's javelin, knocking it off Sully's javelin and got it plugged into floor, effectively shielding Flavia's from Stahl's attack. Then, without batting an eye, Flavia elbows Sully and smashed her right onto Stahl.

Paying no more attention to three fallen characters, Flavia glances over to her original target, Chrom, to find that he has already been shielded by his 3 companions left.

"Stop this madness this instance!" Frederick points his silver lance at Flavia.

"I won't let you hurt captain Chrom!" Sumia grips her iron lance tightly to her chest.

"Don't even think about touching a single hair on my brother!" Even Lisssa, the one without a weapon, braves herself to defend her brother.

"Heh…" A small smile blooms on Flavia's face. She then sheathes her sword into back into its scabbard and casually walks over to Chrom.

"D-don't underestimate j-just me because I'm a princess! I-I know martial arts!" Lissa yells at the coming Flavia.

"Peace, Lissa…" Chrom puts a hand on his sister's shoulder. "Frederick, Sumia. You two should step back."

"But, milord…" Frederick looks at Chrom, unsure if that would be a wise choice to do.

"It's alright, Frederick…" Chrom reassures his friend.

Unwillingly as he may, Frederick obediently follows his lord's order and steps back. Sumia hesitates, but ultimately decide to listen to Chrom's order.

Chrom steps forward in front of his sister and faces Flavia. He braces himself for whatever going to happen next. "I am here today to propose an alliance between the Halidom of Ylisse and Regna Ferox." He says, his voice is filled with determination. "And I will stay here to pester you until you give me an answer!"

"And what if I say no?" Flavia says nonchalantly.

"I'll not accept a 'no' for an answer." Chrom does not back down and stares straight into Flavia's eyes. "Whatever may be going through your mind right now… I, will not, accept, a 'no', for, an answer!"

The two stand there, staring at each other for almost half a minute. Then suddenly, Flavia burst into laughter. Everyone else in the room got caught off by Flavia's sudden change of attitude, and just stand there looking at her, dumbfounded.

"…Ha ha ha! Don't be so tense like that, little princey." Flavia laughs and taps Chrom on his shoulder.

"Um… I'm sorry, I don't think I understand what's going on…" Chrom frowns.

"You see… We people of Regna Ferox dislikes formality, diplomacy, stuffs like that. We prefer battle over politics. Or rather, battle is our politics. Everything here is decided through strength." Flavia explains.

"Then… you were testing my strength earlier?" Chrom sweats.

"Indeed." Flavia nods. "And you failed miserably." She grins.

"Wha-but…!"

"…NOT!" Flavia suddenly yells at Chrom. Chrom got so surprised that he swears he almost wet his pants by the shock. "Ha ha ha ha!" Flavia bursts into laughter again.

"Your Excellency, your laugh is so undignified." Virion speaks up.

"Shut up, Virion. No one asked for your opinion." Flavia glares at him, to which Virion just react with another graceful bow.

"Um… I'm sorry to say this again, but I still don't think I understand what's going on…" Chrom sweats even more. He knows that Flavia told him to relax, but her laughter just made him even more nervous.

"I am a khan for a reason, prince Chrom." Flavia says. "If my way of testing your strength is asking people to defeat me, then there are none in all of Regna Ferox that can pass my test. I was actually testing a different sort of strength."

"And what is that strength you wanted?" Chrom asks.

"You don't understand?" Flavia looks over to Vaike, Sully and Stahl. "When you got suddenly attacked, these friends of yours didn't care about the danger of facing me directly and immediately jumped in to rescue you." Then she looks over to Frederick, Lissa and Sumia. "And when after seeing me easily defeat those three, these three here still didn't give up the thought of protecting you." Flavia smiles, an actual genuine smile, not the grins that's been on her face from earlier. "That, prince Chrom, is also strength."

Chrom looks over to his companions. Lissa is his beloved little sister, the one who he holds dear the most, next to Emmeryn. Frederick is the most loyal knight of House Ylisse and has been looking after Chrom like a big brother for as long as he could remember. Sully is friend with him since childhood, and together, they had been through thick and thin, to Chrom, their bond is also as strong as siblings. Stahl is a knight of House Ylisse too, though he hasn't served under Chrom as long as Frederick or Sully, and everything he does is above average at best, his willingness to do anything is second-to-none, he's the one who Chrom trusts the most to get things done, even more so than Frederick. Vaike… He is hot-headed and loud-mouth and brash and reckless, but he's Chrom's so-called arch rival, the one Chrom enjoys sparring with the most. And then there's Sumia, she's delicate and clumsy and is a bit of an airhead, despite all that, she still determine to become a Pegasus knight to serve House Ylisse, Chrom can't help but looking after her like she's his own little sister. All of them are Chrom's bestest friends, they are Chrom's Shepherds. The bond between them is like that of members in a big family.

"Heh…" A small smile blooms on Chrom's face. Chrom has always considered the Shepherds as his greatest friends and allies, but to heard the east-khan of Regna Ferox complimenting them as his greatest strength, it's actually kind of embarrassing, he thought.

"Alright now, let's get back to the topic. Why the sudden alliance?" Flavia asks.

"Actually, Flavia…" Chrom begins telling Flavia about the Risen, the Shepherds encounters with the creatures in these past few days and the threat they pose to both Ylisse and Regna Ferox.

"I see…" Flavia nods in agreement. "Since Ylisse doesn't have an army of its own, you seek aid from Regna Ferox to deal with this threat."

"Yes, that is our intention, Flavia." Chrom says. "Then… will you agree to the alliance?" He asks.

"I would… if I could." Flavia shakes her head. "Unfortunately, I lack the authority to approve the alliance."

"What?! Why not?" Vaike yells. "Are you so stingy you can't spare us a platoon or two?"

"Peace, Vaike." Stahl has to hold Vaike back. "Don't say anything that would make matters worse."

"Let go of me, Stahl!" Vaike violently tries to get out Stahl's grip… "If strength decides everything here in Regna Ferox, then I'll hit her head silly until she changes her mind! Gwa!" …and got punched in the face by Sully.

"I'll hit your head silly if you don't shut up, you block-head!" Sully growls at him.

"Um… Please forgive my comrade's behavior…" Embarrassed, Chrom apologizes to Flavia profusely.

"Ha ha ha! No need to apologize, prince Chrom." Flavia laughs. "If anything, I found myself to taken a liking to your friend's honest personality." Then she stops her laughing and her face returns to a serious look. "Back to the topic of the alliance though. You know that Regna Ferox is ruled by two khans, right?"

"So I've heard the tale." Chrom replies. "One khan of the east, and one khan of the west, right?"

"That's right. I'm the East-Khan, and the West-Khan is a man named Basilio." Flavia nods. "And as I've told you earlier, here in Regna Ferox, everything is decided through strength. That's why every few years, we would hold a tournament to determine which khan to hold absolute sovereignty over both the west and the east. Think of it like an election, but with violence instead of voting, and even though it is called a tournament, it is only a one-on-one duel between two champions. Swords, lances, axes, tomes, any kind of weapons are acceptable, as long as you don't kill the opponent, the duel ends when champion got their weapons knocked off or one champion forfeit." Flavia explains. "And unfortunately for you, the last tournament was won by the west khan…"

"So we are to receive no aid at all?" Chrom sweats.

"Not if you don't help me in the next tournament." Flavia grins. "The next tournament is to be held in the next few days, and I want YOU to be my champion this time."

"W-what?!" Chrom blurts out. "How do you expect me to defeat the West-Khan if I can't even fight you on equal round?"

"I think you're misunderstanding something here… We khans don't participate in the tournament ourselves. Instead, we choose champions to represent us, foreigners to be exact. How else could I lose the tournament to that oaf of the west?" Flavia shrugs.

"That… kinda makes sense, I suppose?" Chrom raises an eyebrow. (Did she just call the West-Khan an oaf?)

"Though you are always free to refuse. I won't force you to fight if you don't want to." Flavia says.

"I'll do it!" Chrom declares with determination. "If it means save my people from the threat of the Risen, I'll participate and win that tournament for you! I swear on my honor!"

"Well said, prince Chrom." Flavia gives Chrom a pat on his shoulder.

After that, Chrom and his friends were styled as honor guests of the East-Khan. Flavia then ordered her men to show Chrom and his companions their rooms in the palace. Exhausting after a long trip and Flavia's rough welcoming, everyone returned to their rooms and rest…

… But after a short while, everyone got up from their beds and left their rooms.

…

In the training ground of castle Ferox, Flavia is diligently carrying out her daily training, then she notices someone watching her, it was Chrom.

"Chrom?" She calls out to him. "What are you doing here? Why don't you go and take a rest? I'm sure you must be tired after a long trip."

Chrom walks over to Flavia and takes out his Falchion. "Flavia…" He speaks up while points the tip of his sword at her. "Please, train me to become a better fighter!" He bellows.

"Huh?" Flavia tilts her head. "Pointing your sword at me while asking me to train you? Is that how you do it in your nation?"

"No, but I figure that since there's only a few days left until the tournament, the best way to improve myself is to face you in combat!" Chrom braces himself. "Come! Don't hold anything back! Give me all you got!"

"Heh! You're interesting!" Flavia grins and twirls her sword around. "Then prepare yourself! Here I come!"

…

At around the same time, in the garden of the palace, Vaike can be seen intently doing sit-ups. Sully and Stahl, who were passing through, saw him and decided to walk over to him to ask what he was doing.

"What the hell are you doing?" Sully asks.

"Can't ya see? I'm training, of course!" Vaike answers while still doing sit-ups.

"In the middle of somebody's garden?" Sully raises an eyebrow.

"I can train whenever I want! I don't need you to tell me!" Vaike growls.

"Actually, Vaike…" Stahl speaks up. "Sully and I were heading to the training ground to do some training, too. Why don't you join us?"

"Nuh-uh!" Vaike refuses. "The East-Khan is training there herself. I don't wanna disturb her!"

"Are you… still mad from earlier?" Stahl asks.

"How could I not be mad?!" Vaike stops doing sit-ups. "Even with the three of us, we couldn't so much lay a finger on her! She didn't even brake a sweat after toying with us! The difference in strength is just too great! How could I not be mad!" Vaike stomps on the ground to let go of his anger.

"So you feel that way too, huh?" Sully sighs.

"What do you mean by 'too'?" Vaike turns to Sully.

"Stahl and I also share the same feeling as you, we are also the losers after all." Sully says.

"More of a reason we should training together." Stahl laughs, then suddenly something comes into his mind. "Ah hey! I just had a brilliant idea! I uses sword, Sully uses lance, Vaike uses axe. Our weapons have advantage over each other. If we train together and overcome the disadvantage, then our skills will improve drastically. Who knows, maybe we can even come up with an awesome triangle attack of our own!" Stahl gleefully shares his thought.

"Oh, that's a nice idea!" Sully gives Stahl a thumb up. "That's my bro for ya!"

"Less talking, more training, guys!" Vaike picks up his axe. "Now, who want to take the great Vaike on first?!"

…

Elsewhere in the palace, Virion can be seen flirting with the maids.

"Please, my fair maiden, life is too short to just dally around all day. I think it's time for you to seriously consider marriage with... Hm, someone like me, perhaps?"

The maid gives him a funnily look and runs away as fast as she could.

"Wait, milady! At least tell me your name!" Virion tries to call out to her, but the maid is already out of his sight.

"Forgive me if I may be so bold…" Frederick, who just happened to passes by, speaks up from behind Virion. "...but I think you're the one dallying around here, sir Virion."

"Nonsense, sir Knight." Virion waves a finger in front of Frederick's face. "I assure you that I am not dallying around. I am actually doing a very important mission here."

"A mission?" Frederick squints. "And what is this mission of yours? Perhaps I can be of aid?"

"It's…" Virion draws his face closer to Frederick and says with a low voice.

"It's…?" Frederick focuses intently on Virion.

"Mating!"

"Bwah-WHAT?!"

"Mating, sir Knight." Virion flips his hair. "Since ancient times, the gods have bestowed upon us the holy mission of mating. Without finding a mate for ourselves, we'll not be able secure the survival of our species! Without mating, human kind will go extinct!"

"Er…" Frederick isn't sure how to respond to that.

"And that's why, sir Knight. In the name of gods, I'm finding a mate of my own to save the future of all human kind! It is a heavy and sacred responsibility that I bear, but I, the great and magnificent Virion, shall carry out my duty accomplish this godly duty!" Virion strikes a pose and point a finger towards the heaven.

"…" Frederick turns around and walks away as fast as he can.

"W-wait! Why are you walking away? I'm serious, this is a very important mission…" Virion tries to call out to Frederick, but the knight has already gone out of Virion's sight.

…

Because this is the first time Lissa ever travel to a foreign nation, she's really excited to see what the shops in Regna Ferox have to offer. But knowing her brother and Frederick's overprotective tendency, they wouldn't allow Lissa to go out alone, so she silently slips out of the palace and drags Sumia to go with her just in case. They then go and take a look at a tailor shop near the palace.

"Oooh, the outfits of Regna Ferox sure look unique!" Lissa walks into the shop and excitedly goes through many of the outfits on display. Sumia nervously follows the princess and looks up an outfit for her too.

"Hey, Sumia. Do you prefer pink or yellow?" Lissa asks, while still shuffling through the many outfits. "Sumia?" Lissa turns to look for Sumia, she sees that Sumia is also looking for an outfit. "Hm?" Lissa notices that Sumia only stops to take a look at outfits with blue or navy as its main color.

"Um… I wonder if he'll like this one." Sumia ponders to herself.

"Hey, Sumia." Lissa touches her on the back.

"Wah, oh, princess. Don't scare me like that…"

"Are you looking for an outfit for my brother?" Lissa playfully teases Sumia.

"Ah, oh, yes…" Sumia mumbles and hides her blushing face with the outfit she's holding.

"Alright then…" Lissa claps her hands. "Come, Sumia, I'll help you with the selecting. I know the taste of my brother very well, there's no way he won't the outfits I choose." Lissa grins. "First, let's look for a cape, my brother is a fanatic for heroic cape. Then we'll have a look at all the blue shirts in this shop, and then…"

* * *

_Sanjima: Hello, everyone. Thank you for finishing chapter 12. Chapter 11 was written to make Scrooge and Cordelia deepen the bond between them, so this chapter 12 was written to show the bond between Chrom and the Shepherds. And since I suck at writing a good conversation involving lots of characters (you probably notice this by now), I wrote a short battle scene with Flavia to show off their bond instead. I hope I'm not overdoing these battle scene 'cause there's one more battle coming in the next chapter. __And those little scenes after the battle scene were just me experimenting ways to write interactions between members of the Shepherds, I hope they didn't turn out too badly lol. _

_Sanjima: So, thank you again for finishing chapter 12. Please look forward to the next chapter, everyone!_


	13. Two Falchions

**Chapter 13: Two Falchions**

A few days later, the day to decide who to be the ruling khan has come. Flavia leads Chrom and everyone else to Arena Ferox, where the tournament takes place.

1000 years ago, after the period of Scism , the people of Regna Ferox were living in peace with no battles whatsoever, but blood of a warrior flows within each and every citizen, so they couldn't stand the era of peace and grew restless day by day. Seeing a potential for massive rebellion to brakes out, the first khans built a coliseum west of the capital and carry out battles there to both satisfy the thirst for battles of the warrior, and to bring entertainment to the curious ordinary citizens.

Years later, Regna Ferox absorbed many small nations surrounding it, and expands its border. Slowly, its territory got so vast that one Khan couldn't possibly rule the nation effectively. As a result, it was decided that there would be Khans to rule the nation, one khan of the East, and one khan of the West. To avoid unnecessary bloodshed from the power struggle between the two khans, a tournament was created to decide which Khan would hold absolute sovereignty over the other, and every few years the tournament would be held again at Arena Ferox. The rule was already explained by Flavia in the last chapter so feel free to go back and read it if you've forgotten.

After arriving at Arena Ferox, Flavia leads Chrom to the preparation room of the East side, while Virion leads the others to find good seats.

From the entrance of the Arena, Flavia and Chrom have to go through a long spiral hallway with no windows and only dimly lit candles to light the way before arriving at the preparation room. It is a very large room, with all kinds of weapons and armors available to choose. Though Chrom doesn't need to choose anything from the big armory, since all he need is his trusted Falchion. But, as confidence as Chrom may be, this is his first time participating in an event that decides the fate of an entire nation, no, the fate of two nations, in fact, he does feel somewhat nervous just by thinking about it.

"Urgh… Suddenly I feel like there's butterfly in stomach…" Chrom confesses.

"Feel free to back out now if you want. I'll just go and tell Virion to go back being my champion this year." Flavia jokingly says.

"Er, no, Flavia… I'm just…" Chrom rolls his eyes, trying to find an excuse for his nervousness, then suddenly, Vaike's over the top unique way of speaking comes to his mind. "…feeling the excitement before the battle, is all. Yeah, that's it! I'm shaking with excitement, the great Chrom can't wait to go out there and smack some heads! Urgh… Did I just say that out loud?" Chrom hides his face with his palm and shakes his head in utter disgust.

"Ha ha ha!" Flavia gives Chrom a pat on the back. "That's the spirit! I'll wait for your victory then. Don't you go let me down now, pretty boy! Ha ha ha!" Flavia rapturously laughs and exits the room, leaving only Chrom behind.

Chrom sees Flavia off, then turns to looks at the door that leads to the battle ground. He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and slaps himself in the cheeks. "For Ylisse! For Ylisse!" He mutters to himself. "Alright, no more nervousness! Focus! Focus!" He opens his eyes wide, draws the Falchion off its scabbard and swings it around, doing some sword dance to warm himself up.

…

At the same time, Virion and others have managed to find good seats and settled down to wait for the tournament to begin.

"Geez… I'm so nervous, even though I'm not the one participating." Lissa is visibly shaken up in her seat.

"Don't worry, Lissa." Sumia takes a hold of Lissa's hand and smiles at her warmly. "The captain will win for sure. The flower fortune told me that." Sumia shows Lissa a bunch of small flowers.

"Of course Chrom's going to win!" Lissa yells. "Are you so doubtful of my brother mad skill that you have to rely on flower fortune to tell you that!"

"Er, no-Lissa, I just…" Sumia flusters

"Bad Sumia, no more flower fortunes for you!" Lissa forcefully takes all the flowers in Sumia's hands and hide them behind her seat.

"NOOO! Lissa! Give me back my flowers! I NEED my flower fortunes!"

"Urgh…" Sully, the one sitting next to Lissa and Sumia, shakes her head in annoyance.

"Are those two cuties always like that?" Virion, the one sitting next to Sully, asks.

"Yeah, pretty much… Wait, why are you sitting next to me?!" Sully yells at Virion.

"How cruel of you… How could I leave such lovely ladies alone and go sit elsewhere…"

"STAHL!" Sully yells to the Stahl, who is sitting right next to Virion. "Move your ass over here, I demand you!"

"Wha-? But I like this seat." Stahl protests.

"Come on, people!" Frederick, the one sitting next to Stahl, bellows. "Behave yourselves and not to disturb other spectators, please!"

"Come on! Get out there and fight already! BOO!" Vaike, the one sitting next to Frederick, yells out loud.

"That goes for you too, Vaike!" Frederick quickly stops Vaike from doing anymore hooligan acts.

"What did I miss?" Flavia asks, having just arrive right that instant, she looks at others amusingly.

"Urgh…" Sully shakes her head in annoyance once more and sighs.

…

Moments later, the sounds of the war drums can be heard playing through the Arena. The time to begin the tournament is drawing near. The door leading to the battle ground slowly opens for Chrom to make his entrance. Chrom takes a deep breath in, steels himself and steps out of the door, he steps out to the very first major event in his life, the battle to determine the very outcome of history…

"Hm…?" When Chrom walks out to the battle ground, he sees a familiar person in the opposite direction of him.

Clad in blue cloth with a blue cape, blue hair and wears a mysterious mask on his face. That's someone Chrom knows. "That's Marth!" Chrom blurts out. "He's the champion of the East-Khan?"

Doesn't seem like Marth's too surprised at Chrom's being at Arena Ferox, he slowly walks toward Chrom and greets the prince. "Greetings, prince Chrom of house Ylisse." Marth speaks with a cool voice. "I've always wanted to have a one-on-one duel with you. May the better swordsman emerge as the victor." He makes a small bow to Chrom, then draws his sword off its scabbard, revealing the golden radiance and unique designs of the blade and handle, which is almost identical to…

"The Falchion?!" Chrom couldn't believe his eyes. "W-where did you get that sword?!"

"…From my father. Believe it or not…" Marth answers, still retaining his cool voice and composure. "You should draw your weapon, too."

"…..." Chrom doesn't believe Marth's answer, but decided to not ask any more question. If he doesn't want to answer honestly, then I'll force him to answer honestly with my sword, thought Chrom. Chrom draws his Falchion from its scabbard, and he…

Marth…

…quickly moves into his battle stance.

He twirls his sword around in the air a few spins, then he folds his left arm across his chest with his right arm holding the sword horizontally across his left arm.

"What the…?" Once again, Chrom couldn't believe his eyes. Marth and he just go into the same battle stance at the exact same time. He didn't copy me, he knew the swordsmanship of House Ylisse! A master of that, even… Chrom thought. Now he is suspecting that Marth isn't just some mere traveling swordsman, there's something more than just meet the eyes here. "Just… who exactly are you?" Chrom asks Marth.

"…" Marth doesn't answer. He twitches his head a little to the side, and instantly plunges himself toward Chrom, thrusting his sword at Chrom's chest.

"!" Chrom brings down his sword as fast as he could to parries the coming attack.

As soon as the two swords collide, Marth's right hand let go of the sword's grip. With Chrom's attack from above hitting the tip of Marth's sword, it sends Marth's sword flipping around in the air, from the left side of Chrom to his left side. Marth catches the sword with his left hand and instantly continues his attack from the side. Chrom pulls himself backward a step and position his sword vertically along his side to guard against the attack. The two swords collide one more time, but this time, Chrom doesn't waste so much a second, he summons all his strength and charges forward, forcing Marth into a weapon deadlock with him.

"…!" Being pushed back, Marth struggles to keep his balance. He slightly bends his knee and moves his body to the left side of Chrom, in hope that Chrom loses his balance from weighing down too much strength. But, Chrom knows all too well that Marth intended to do, since this is his favorite trick to do when fighting Vaike, he swings his left arm and hits Marth in the head with his elbow. Marth loses his balance from the hit. Seeing the opportunity to end the match, Chrom fixes the sword in his right hand and thrusts at the sword-holding hand of Marth. Not giving Chrom his chance at victory, Marth flips his whole body in the air and kicks Chrom in the ribs, effectively withdrawing a few steps behind and lengthen the distance between the two, securing his landing safely.

The two swordsmen get back to their feet and stare at each other intently. Sweats are starting to roll down their cheeks, and their breathings are running wild. It is not that the fatigue of the duel has gotten to them, but it is the excitement of battling a worthy opponent they are feeling.

"Heh…" Chrom grins. "You're pretty good."

"…Thanks for the compliment." A small smile blooms on Marth's face. "…It means a lot to me."

"But," Chrom jumps high into the air. "I'm going to be the victor of this match!" He loudly declares. With his whole body still flying in the air, Chrom curls his body into that of a ball and spins at Marth with great speed.

Marth's legs twitch, he was going to step to the side to dodge Chrom's attack, but for some reason, he abandon that idea and stand his ground, bracing himself and tackles Chrom's attack head on. Chrom violently rams into Marth. Their swords collide a third time, sending a shrieking noise of steel hitting steel resounding throughout the whole arena.

"Hng… Arghh!" Marth bellows and summons all his might to pushes Chrom back before he get overpowered by Chrom's stronger arm' strength. As soon as the swords separate, Marth charges in and furiously attack Chrom as fast as he can, not giving Chrom even a tiny chance of counterattack, sending sparks flying everywhere.

Feeling overwhelmed, Chrom tries to brakes away from Marth's onslaught. When Marth swings down his sword, Chrom takes the chance and jumps back a few steps. He tries to gain back his breathing rhythm, but Marth doesn't give a chance. Marth jumps high into the air and does exactly what Chrom just did moments earlier.

"!" Knowing how dangerous that attack can be, Chrom doesn't take chances, he immediately jumps to the side to dodge the attack as soon as he sees it coming.

Marth's attack misses its target, his whole body collides with the ground, sending dust flying where he land. "Urgh…" He groans.

That's strange… Chrom thought. That technique has a guarantee safety landing, but Marth failed to do the landing, and his crashing looks pretty bad. Was that because he's already fatigued? Or was he not that masterful at House Ylisse's swordsmanship like Chrom had thought?

Whatever the reason may be, it is not important right now, the important thing to Chrom right now, is to seize victory. With Marth struggling to get back up on his feet, it would be very easy for Chrom to rushes in and knocks the sword off Marth's hand. But wouldn't that be dishonorable to attack a disadvantaged opponent?

"…" Not saying a word, Chrom walks over to Marth.

Marth grips his sword tightly, if worse comes to worst, he's prepared to make one last desperate attack. But what Chrom does next surprises him: Chrom crouches down and extends his hand to Marth. "Give me your hand." He says.

Stunned, it takes a few seconds for Marth to register the meaning of that phrase into his mind. When finally understand that Chrom means no malice, he extends his hand to take Chrom's outstretched hand. Chrom grasp Marth's hand firmly and pull Marth up from the ground. Maybe it's Chrom's imagination, but Marth's hand appears to be… more feminine than he had thought.

"…My thanks, sire." Marth thanks Chrom, his voice has completely lost its coolness from earlier.

"No problem." Chrom gently smiles. "Now, shall we get back to business?" And he casually steps a few pace away from Marth and goes back to his battle stance.

"…" Marth looks down at the hand that just held Chrom's, a small smile is briefly visible on his face. He grips his hand, lifts his face looks up at his opponent and goes back into his battle stance.

The two stare intently at each other, take a deep breath to calm themselves down. Then after a few seconds, their hands twitch. And without exchanging any words, they plunge forward and charge at each other. Marth slides his sword across the ground and swings it upward, while Chrom swings his sword into the air and slashes downward.

!

One final attack from the swordsmen.

In the next few seconds, the victor will be declared.

The whole arena holds their breath and silently observes the two swordsmen, not a single sound was made. For a few seconds, the two swordsmen just stand there with their backs facing each other, unmoving. Just a few seconds, but it feels as long as an hour. Then, a few seconds pass, nothing changes except a little noise can be heard. Marth's mask crack, brakes into two and fall onto the ground.

"Heh…" Marth closes his eyes and makes a satisfying smile. "Well fought, prince Chrom of House Ylisse." He says. "I… surrender" he declares, with not a hint of regret.

He surrendered. Marth surrendered. That means… Chrom won the match!

The crowd goes wild, the sound of war drums erupt throughout the Arena, congratulating Chrom on his victory.

Chrom stands there in the middle of the arena, in the center of the jubilant cheers from the spectators. He feels an indescribable feeling of joy and honor. This may sounds exaggerating, but Chrom feels like he just changed the very course of history itself with this victory.

Chrom takes a deep breath and calms himself down, he then puts away his Falchion back to its scabbard and turns to face Marth. Marth also turns to face Chrom. Now that the mask is gone, Chrom finally had a better view of Marth's face. Aside from the closed left eye, Chrom can see that the features on Marth's face are quite pretty. In fact, Marth looks so pretty…

"Wait…" Chrom takes a hard look at Marth's face. "You're-you're a woman?"

Marth reaches into his, er-I mean… her collar and pulls out and let loose the long silky hair that was hidden away from everybody's view. "Yes, I am a girl." Marth replies. "Are you disappointed?"

"Er, no, just… surprised." Chrom frowns.

"Is that so?" Somehow, Marth looks relieved. "Please excuse me, prince Chrom. I must now take my leave…" Marth makes a small bow to Chrom then turns and start leaving.

"Wait, Marth…" Chrom calls out to stop him from leaving.

"Rest assure, prince Chrom." Marth says, without turning back to look at Chrom. "We will meet again later, I promise. For now, I must go and make an apology to the West-Khan for my defeat. I hope you can understand…" Marth leaves for real this time.

"I see…"

Chrom remains where he's standing and watches Marth going off, until she's finally out of sight. Then, Chrom turns and leaves the arena too.

…

"Waah, Chrom!" Lissa jumps into Chrom's lap and hugs him as soon as she sees him coming out of the Arena's entrance. "Congratulations on winning! The match was splendid!"

"Yeah, a splendid match if I do say so myself…" Vaike adds. "Worthy for one being Teach's acrh-rival! Nyar har har har!"

"Yes, that was amazing, captain!" Sumia joins in with Lissa and Vaike.

"Alright now, guys. Enough with the praises, you're making me blush here." Chrom puts Lissa down, then turns to Flavia. "As promised, I've claimed victory for you, Flavia."

"Consider me impressed." Flavia claps her hands. "You've earned my respect, and of course, you're earned an alliance with Regna Ferox, prince Chrom."

"Truly? You have my thanks, Flavia." Chrom bows to Flavia.

"Actually, I must be the one to thank you, Chrom." Flavia wraps her arm around Chrom and pulls him to her. "Come, my friends! Tonight, we celebrate! We will drink until we collapse!"

"Bah! Any excuse for a party and you jumps at it immediately." A rough voice calls out of from within the arena's entrance.

"I know that haughty voice." Flavia turns to look at the entrance, there she sees… "Basilio, you oaf! Here to cry about your lost throne, huh? Or are you here to beg me to let you join my party tonight?"

"Um, are you…" Chrom directs his eyes to Basilio.

"Yes, I am Basilio, the West-Khan, my boy. The one you just rudely kicked right out of his rightful throne." Basilio walks over to Chrom, take his hand and shakes it firmly. "Don't feel so bad about it though. That was a great match and I enjoyed every second of it! Ar har har!"

"Thanks for the compliment, West-Khan." Chrom laughs. Then he looks over Basilio's shoulders and notice there are 3 people standing behind him, with Marth as one of them. "Excuse me, West-Khan." Chrom let go of Basilio's hand and walks over to Marth.

"This is not an appropriate place to talk." Marth says to Chrom. "Let's find a more private place." She suggests, and Chrom agrees.

"Wait, milord. Where are you going?" Frederick calls out to Chrom when he sees his lord walking away with Marth.

"Don't worry, Frederick. We're just having a little talk. We'll be back soon." Chrom waves goodbye to Frederick and others and walks away with Marth.

"Hm…" Lissa looks at Chrom walking away with a suspicious look in her eyes. "I didn't know my brother was into cross-dressing…"

…

"Alright, now." Chrom stares at Marth with a menacing look. "Tell me everything I want to know. Who exactly are you. What exactly is that sword of yours? How did you get it? And how did you come to know the swordsmanship of House Ylisse?"

"…" Marth takes a deep breath. "…Before that, I need to tell you something…"

"And what is it?"

"Actually, prince Chrom. My name is not Marth." She confesses. "My real name… is Lucina, and I came from the future… A future where most of humanity had perished."

* * *

_Sanjima: Hello, everyone. Thank you for finishing chapter 13. The duel between 'Marth' and Chrom in this chapter just hit the record of being the longest battle since the start of this fic, not that I'm complaining, but I hope that you guys that didn't feel like it got dragged out too much, since I wanted to make the duel feel climatic. Also, that part about Chrom feeling that he just changed the very course of history is actually somewhat true, in a sense that I'm going to start slowly veering off the game's narration, starting with the next chapter. One more major event, and I'll go for a completely original story, not dependent on the chapters in the game. So, with that said, please look forward to future chapters, everyone!_


	14. (Not) just another ordinary day

**Chapter 14: (Not) just another ordinary day.**

The sun is slowly rising up from the horizon from the Far East, signaling a new day has arrived, but no one really care. Of course, who would care about the rising sun? The sun rises every day, it's a fact. If anyone has the time to care about the rising sun, they'd probably use that time to get some more sleep before confronting a whole day of hard work waiting for them.

But, while most definitely will want to stay in bed and roll around doing nothing, not everyone have the luxury to do that. People have to make a living, right? The early bird catches the worm, right? Whether they like it or not, common people have to get out of their beds and start preparing themselves as soon as the sun peeks over the horizon.

This, is a beginning of a usual day of a little farm boy named Donnel.

As soon as he heard the crows of his roosters telling him that a new day is finally here, Donnel gets up and gets out of his bed. He washes his face, changes into a new pair of clothes, puts on his head his trusty pot-helmet, and he's ready to tackles on any kinds of trouble a new day can give him.

"Awrighty!" He smiles at his reflection in the mirror. "Let's give it our bestest terday, too!" He takes his hoe and walks out of the house, full of confidence.

"Oh, g'day, Donnel!" Donnel's neighbor, Lux, saw Donnel and waves at him.

"G'day to ya too, Lux!" Donnel pleasantly waves back at Lux.

The village Donnel lives in is a very small one, with only 10 households here, so every villager knows each other very well and treats others like one big family.

Lux, is one of the village's newer members, only settled down in the village around 6 years ago, the newest member of the village just joined a few days ago by the way. He is a man in his late 30s, with brown curly hair, has a small yet carefully cared goatee and a rather impressive build. He may looks like a dissipated man at first glance, but Lux is actually a cool and laid-back man, other villagers are very fond of him. Oh, and apparently, he's a very capable archer, as he doesn't work on the farm like most other villagers, and instead he goes into the forest and hunts many wild animals for meat and skin and gives them to the villagers.

"Hm…" Lux strokes his goatee and looks up in the sky. "Nice day we're having, eh?" He asks Donnel.

"Yes, nice day indeed." Donnel also looks up in the sky and enjoys the view.

"So…" Lux takes out a small coin from his pocket. "Wanna go hunting with me today?" He tosses the coin into the air and catches it. "Heads or tails?" he asks.

"Tails." Donnel chooses. Lux opens his palm to shows the coin, it is indeed tails.

"Aww…" Lux looks disappointed. He sighs and slips the coin back into his pocket. "You sure you don't wanna go with me?"

"Thanks for the offer, sir Lux." Donnel laughs. "But I hafta' go an' help my Pa with the farm work terday. Perhaps next time, eh?"

"Just go with him, Donny." Donnel's father, who just woke up moments ago, calls out. He yawns and walks over to his son. "Go an' have some fun fer terday. Just leave the field plowin' to yer Pa here!" He pats his chest.

"If ya said so." Donnel gives to hoe to his father. "Awrighty! Let's go do some huntin', sir Lux! I'll teach ya how ter lay some beast traps terday!"

…

Donnel's village is located in a small mountain near the border between Ylisse and Plegia, and is surrounded by forest on all sides, filled with a variety of wild animals. Some even says that there are rare kinds of animal that can only be found in this forest, but that may just be a groundless rumor…

Lux and Donnel go into the forest near the village. Like usual, Lux is equipped with an iron bow and arrows for his hunting. Donnel insisted that he'd only hunt by luring animals into his traps, but Lux told him to take a bronze spear (hand maded by Lux himself) with him just in case.

They go and find themselves a clear spot, suitable to make a trap. Donnel then proceed to teach Lux his secret way of making a 100% effective beast trap: First, he spread out a number of obvious traps as a decoy to force the wild beasts into a false sense of security. When the beasts notice the decoy traps, it will obviously avoid them, but by doing so, the beasts will play into Donnel's hand and fall into the real trap waiting for the beasts.

It was a very effective way of trapping a beast, but due to its complexity and the requirement of multiple traps being laid out in multiple spots, not many hunters resort to using this way of trapping, and out of all the villagers, only Donnel could do it.

Lux knows about the impractical of Donnel's way of trapping, but seeing Donnel having fun with it, Lux doesn't object and just go with the flow and have fun with the boy, and on the plus side, he also gets to experience another amusing moment, laying out all the traps with Donnel.

After finishing with laying out the traps, all that's left is to wait for a wild beast to fall for the trap. Lux suggests that they go do some physical hunting while they wait. This time, Lux will show Donnel how to hunt with a bow, he says.

…

Later, in the afternoon.

"Awright! That's 2 wild boars and a deer already!" Lux gleefully announces.

"That last shot was amazin', sir Lux!" Donnel applauds. "That deer was runnin' so fast and yet ya still able ter shot it right in the head!"

"That was nothing, Donny." Lux picks up the boars on the ground and walks over to the deer.

"Oh, let me do that for ya!" Donnel runs over to the deer and picks it up from the ground for Lux.

"Thanks ya, Donny!" Lux says, he then looks up into the sky. The sun's is directly shining down upon the two of them, meaning that's it's exactly the middle of noon. "Hm… We've been hunting for a while already. Let's go back to see if the traps got its result yet, then we'll return to the village."

"Sounds good ter me!"

With their spoils, the two of them returns to where Donnel laid out the traps.

"Hm?" Donnel notices that some of the traps are off, but there are no wild animals nearby. "That's weird?" He mutters to himself and runs over to the traps to take a look at them.

"What's wrong?" Lux also runs over.

"Here, sir Lux." Donnel points to the traps. "The traps here got set off, and yet there is no animal 'round!" Donnel then notices that there's blood on the trap, evident that something did got tricked into the trap.

"Did the animal free itself somehow?" Lux asks.

"Is there such an animal smart 'nough ter free itself from 'ese traps?"

"Technically, human can also be classified as animal, you know?" A dull voice suddenly speaks up from somewhere.

Lux and Donnel look over to the direction of the voice, and they see a man cloaked in a black robe with red patterns on it, sitting under a tree nearby. That man was Scrooge, who you should be familiar with by now. Scrooge points at his right ankle, wrapped in bandages soaked with his blood. Realized what happened, Lux and Donnel immediately run over to Scrooge.

"Gosh, I-I'm sorry, I am so sorry!" Donnel apologizes profusely. "Never in my life had I dreamed of snaring me a person like 'is!"

"Here, I have some vulneraries with me here! Let me treat the wound for you." Lux takes out a vulnerary and looks at Scrooge's wound.

"Thanks, but I already treated the wound." Scrooge stops Lux. "I just need a little rest, and it'd heal in no time."

"Oh…" Lux puts away the vulnerary. "Never seen your face around here. You travel alone or something?" He asks.

"Actually, I have another companion with me, but she went off to find some water for me…" Scrooge answers. Then, the three of them hear the noises from a horse coming closer. "Speaks of the devil…" Scrooge mutters to himself.

"Scrooge, I saw a village down…" While riding on top of her Pegasus, Cordelia calls out to Scrooge. "… the stream?" She got surprised when she sees two strangers together with Scrooge.

"A Pegasus!" Donnel screams. "Whoa, a real Pegasus in flesh!" Donnel jumps at the Pegasus and starts 'inspecting' it.

"Um, Scrooge…?" Worried about Donnel's odd fanboyish behavior, Cordelia sheepishly calls out to Scrooge.

"You two, this is my companion, Cordelia, and her beloved little Pegasus." Scrooge starts introducing, accompanied by his bored monotone voice. "Cordelia, these are the masterminds behind the assassination of my poor leg."

"That's… a very harsh introduction, don't you think?" Lux smiles wryly and pulls Donnel away from Cordelia and her Pegasus.

"…Okay?" Cordelia isn't quite sure on what to respond in this situation, so she just quietly gets off her Pegasus, sits down next to Scrooge and hands over to him a bottle of water.

"Thanks…" Scrooge takes the bottle and has a drink, then he asks Lux. "So, you guys live in the village down there?"

"Ah, yes, my name is Lux." Lux introduces himself.

"Donny. Er, I mean, Donnel. My name, that is…" Donnel introduces himself.

"And my name is Cordelia." Cordelia introduces herself. "I'm a Pegasus Knight."

"Oh, so that's why ya had a real Pegasus with ya!" Donnel says. "But why is a Pegasus Knight doin' way outa here, wrapped up in all these bandages…? And is yer lil' Pegasus injured or somethin'? I can see its wings actin' funny…"

"That's…"

"Shh…" Scrooge quickly interrupts. "She's on a secret mission, Donny. You aren't supposed to ask knights about their secret missions."

"Oh, is that so?" Donnel looks surprised. "I did not know about that. Guess that's a knight's duty for ya!"

"What about you, Scrooge?" Lux asks. "Don't tell me you're a Pegasus Knight, too? Ahahaha!" He says jokingly.

"Huh?" Scrooge tilts his head in wonder.

"Scrooge, that's your name, right?" Lux asks. "I heard the girl called you by that name, no?"

"Um… Yes, you can call me Scrooge." Scrooge says. "…I was just a little bit surprised that you knew." He scratches his head. "Er, you see, I was heading west, and I met Cordelia on the way, and we just… kinda stick together as companions. Not much to say aside from that." He shrugs.

"Heading west?" Lux looks over to Cordelia. "I can see the gal getting back to her squad at the border, but you, Scrooge, you have business at the border, too?"

"…Something like that." Scrooge shrugs.

"Plegia?" Lux continues asking. Scrooge nods. "Then you better be careful." Lux says. "Recently, I've heard that Plegian bandits been crossing the border and looting travelers…"

"…" Cordelia bites her lower lip when she hears Lux mentioning the bandits.

"I-I already know about that!" Scrooge quickly stops Lux from saying anything more. "Thanks for the warning, sir. It's precisely because of so that I need to cross the border soon. I really hate getting into needless trouble." He then looks down to his right ankle. "Can't do jack squat with this messed up ankle though."

"Urgh…" Donnel groans. "I, am, really, sorry! Please don't be mad at me!" He begs Scrooge for forgiveness.

"Stop that. You already apologized twice." Scrooge says, slightly annoyed.

"Speaking of your ankle." Cordelia says. "Has it got any better?"

"Yeah, I can walk just fine, but climbing up and down the mountain probably will be a pain." He sighs.

"Why not ride on the Pegasus?" Donnel asks. "That way, you ain't hafta walk."

"I couldn't." Scrooge shakes his head in annoyance. "As soon as I get near it, it kicks me right in the guts. Damn thing must have a grudge with me in previous life or something…"

"Don't call my Pegasus a thing." Cordelia hits Scrooge on the shoulder. "You should ask yourself what you did in the past to make she hates you so much. She only acts that way toward you!"

"…" Scrooge glares over to the Pegasus, he definitely isn't amused with the discrimination.

"Then I'll carry you." Lux says. "I'm very well-trained. I can carry you on my back until we reach my village."

"That's alright. You don't have to…" Scrooge declines the offer.

"Don't you worry!" But Lux insists on doing it anyway. "I'm as strong as an ox!" He takes a boar and carries it on his shoulders. "See? I doubt you are heavier than this boar I'm carrying here."

"Er…" Scrooge frowns. "I don't wanna nitpicking, but if you're carrying me, then who will carry the boars for you?"

Lux just realized this, but Scrooge was right. Donnel can carries the deer by himself, the Pegasus can also carries a boar, and Cordelia probably can too, but it would be rather rude to ask her to do so… Not that Lux and Scrooge are being a sexist or anything, but Cordelia really doesn't look like she's in any shape to carry anything.

"Well, that's easy!" Lux throws the boar down to the ground. "We'll have this boar as lunch!"

"What…!?" Scrooge absentmindedly blurts out.

Lux takes out a coin in his pocket, tosses in the air and catches it and then puts the coin back into his pocket. Scrooge questions the meaning behind the action, but doesn't say anything.

"Donny, let's go." Lux calls out Donnel. "We're gathering firewood to set this lil' guy on fire."

"Yes, sir Lux." Donnel gets up and follows Lux.

"Wait, you two." Cordelia also quickly follows them. "Let me go with you, too."

"Sure, why not." Lux says. "The more the merrier."

"Er, wait, you guys…"Scrooge tries to call out to them, but they are already gone, leaving Scrooge behind alone with the Pegasus. He glares over to his 'companion' and mutters. "…Seriously, did I order you to be cannon fodder before or something…?!" The Pegasus delivers a powerful kick into the tree, just inches away from Scrooge's face, like it's telling him to "Shut the hell up!" Scrooge takes the sign, and slowly moves away from the Pegasus.

…

After gathering enough firewood, Donnel and Lux take care of the cooking, which basically is just setting up a fire and grilling the boar. Scrooge, Cordelia, Lux and Donnel then eat the boar meat together and chat about various topics to pass the time.

"By the way…" Scrooge speaks up. "The layout of those traps over there is really amazing. Did you make them, sir Lux?" he asks.

"Nah, it wasn't me." Lux pats Donnel on the back. "It was the creation this little genius here!"

"Aw, sir Lux, don't say it like that. I ain't no genius…" Donnel scratches his cheek.

"No, saying you're a genius is not an overstatement, if I do say so myself." Scrooge says. "You knew that by laying out traps in obvious location so the animals can see, and by avoiding those obvious traps, it unknowingly follow your scheme and fall to the actual trap. Not many can think up such hunting method."

"Indeed."Cordelia nods. "You have to be familiar with location of setting traps, and well-versed in studying the habits, instincts and reflexes of the animals around here. Otherwise, the animals would see through the hidden traps immediately."

"E hee hee, stop that, will ya? Ya makin' me blush here!" Donnel laughs it off. "I can't do archery like sir Lux, so all I can do ter help with the huntin' is laying out traps. And it's not that 'ard studying the animals around 'ere, I was born and raised here after all. I had 15 years of studyin', so it ain't a big deal at at."

"You know, there's a quote for that in the Art of War…" Scrooge says.

"Art of War?" Cordelia looks over to Scrooge, confused.

"You don't know?" Scrooge looks surprised. "That's a pretty famous military treatise about strategies and tactics." Scrooge turns to Lux and Donnel.

"Er, 'fraid not…" Donnel scratches his head.

"We're just commoners living in the middle of nowhere, Scrooge. We aren't that well-read, a fact that we're not very proud of…" Lux sighs.

"Oh, okay then… I forgot…" Scrooge looks around awkwardly. "Well, I don't remember the exact wording, but it goes like this: "Know thy enemy and know thy self, find victory in a hundred battles. Know thy self, but know not thy enemy, find victory and defeat in equal measure. Know not either thy self nor thy, find defeat in every battle." He then explains. "By growing up around here and studying everything he need about the animals, Donnel has known his enemy. By admitting that he can't be as good an archer as sir Lux, and devoted himself in the art of setting traps, Donnel has known his limit of what he can and can't, thus known his self. Combining these two facts, he was able to "find victory in a hundred battles"!"

He claps his hands once and continues. "And that's not all, the author also have this quote in the treatise: All warfare is based on deception. When able to attack, we must act like we're unable to. When want to attack, we must act like we don't want to. When approaching near the enemy, we must make them think we're still far away… The way Donnel set up the traps is exactly like that!"

"That was amazin'!" Donnel claps his hands, praising Scrooge. "Ya sounds like ya're very well-versed in this Art o' war. Are ya a seasoned tactician or somethin'?"

"Yeah, something like that." Scrooge smiles. "My mother was very interested in all kind of books, even military and strategy books, the Art of War happened to be her favorite, so she read it to me many times when I was small…" The smile on his face slowly fades away, he looks kind of down. "…and I did have some opportunities to carry out what I learnt from it recently…" he mutters.

"Come on…" Cordelia hits Scrooge on the shoulder. "If you're still feeling guilty about the time you hit me, I already forgive you for that so don't worry."

"…" Scrooge stays silent for a few seconds, then he gives himself a painful slap to his right cheek, much to the surprise of the others. He looks over to Cordelia and seems like he want to say something…

"SIR LUX! DONNEL!" Someone's scream stops him from doing so.

Everyone turn to the direction of the voice. They see a green-haired boy with a frightened look on his face, running straight at them. "Sir Lux! Donnel!" The boy screams.

"Dai?!"Donnel gets up and runs toward the green-haired boy, Lux also quickly follows. "W-whassa matter?!" Donnel asks. "Did somethin' happen?!"

"Donnel… sir Lux…" The boy, Dai, is in tears. He sniffs and tries to speak up, but struggles to let the word out of his throat with all the tears on his face. Seeing that something is definitely wrong here, Scrooge and Cordelia also get up and walk over to him to hear what was wrong.

"Peace, Dai." Lux tries to calm Dai down. "Take a breath in… Take a breath out… Now, slowly tell me what happened…"

"*sniff*…The village… The village got attacked by bandits!" Dai says.

"What?!"

Lux and Donnel instantly run in the direction of their village as fast as they can. Cordelia also hurriedly runs after them, with her Pegasus by her side. Dai wipes off all the tears on his face and runs after the three, too.

"W-wait for me, guys!" Scrooge uses his hoe as a cane to supports himself and runs after everyone with difficulties.

…

The group arrived at the village, but it was already too late. The village was already looted with half of the village burnt down, and the bandits have already made their escapes.

Although mad at the bandit's evil deed, there's nothing Donnel or anyone else could do now. Swallowing their frustration, the group helps the villagers to the village's infirmary and treats their wounds. Thankfully, most of the wounds aren't life-threatening, and should be healed after a few days of rest. But…

"Wait… Where are Ma and Ba?!" Donnel notices that his parents are missing from the villagers. "'ey! Does anyone see my Ma and Ba?!" He starts to panic and runs around the village to search for his parents, Lux and Dai also help him, but Donnel's parents are nowhere to be seen.

"D-did they get kidnapped by the bandits?" Dai nervously asks.

"What for?!" Donnel yells. "They already looted the 'hole village! What could 'ey get from kidnapping my Ma and Ba?!"

"Wait… I just realized this, but it wasn't just your parents, Donny…" Lux sweats and looks around. "…Wait, where's Scrooge and Cordelia?"

…

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Cordelia asks Scrooge.

While Lux, Donnel and Dai were helping the villagers tending the wounds, Scrooge told Cordelia to go with him to find the bandit's hideout. Cordelia agreed to Scrooge's suggestion since she didn't want to involve the villagers in something involving the bandits again. But, they've been walking around in the forest for quite a while now, Cordelia is starting to question if Scrooge knows what he's doing.

"Yes, I'm sure…" Scrooge says. "Since the bandits made their escape into the forest, we just have to track down the road where the grasses look stepped on." He explains. "And the broken tree branches just confirmed more that they just passed by here."

"Then why do I keep having a feeling that we're walking around in circle?"

"Dunno." Scrooge shrugs. "They probably walk around in circle in case someone goes after them, like us… Or they were trying to shake off pursuit from someone…"

"…You really think so?"

"Dunno, but it's a possibility."

The two then continue following the track in silent. Then, Cordelia notices that Scrooge is walking normally despite his right ankle shouldn't have healed yet.

"H-hey, is your ankle alright? You shouldn't push yourself if you're still hurt." Cordelia asks, worryingly.

"Rest assured that I most definitely am not alright. My ankle is bleeding so bad that I should be curling up in a bed right now, instead of walking out here in the middle of a forest like some kind of picnic."

"I don't find your sarcasm funny…"

"What makes you think I was being sarcastic?"

"Sure, sure, you wasn't…" Cordelia sighs. "Let's continue with the… Hm?" Cordelia sees an old worn down wooden house in the distance. She turns to Scrooge and points at the house. Scrooge nods.

Scrooge, Cordelia and her Pegasus quietly approach a bush and observe the house from afar.

The house isn't very big, probably enough to fit 15 to 20 people in it. There's only one entrance to the house and 2 windows on the sides, but the windows are rather small, a grown adult definitely won't fit through.

"…" Scrooge strokes his chin and thinks for a moment. The number of bandits is unknown, but there probably are 10 of them at least, and 15 of them at most. Whatever their number may be, confronting them head on would be stupid.

Scrooge looks around the place for a bit more.

The house is surrounded by trees on all sides, and it's going to get dark in another hour or two. Maybe it's best to wait for nightfall and think up some ways to lure them out of the house and capture them one by one. The question is how?

"…" He thinks for little more, then he turns to Cordelia.

"Did you come up with a plan?" Cordelia asks.

"Yeah, kind of." Scrooge answers. "We'll wait until night fall…" Scrooge then tells Cordelia about the plan he just thought up seconds ago. It wasn't a perfect plan, but it sounds good enough and Cordelia thinks that it should work.

"For now, just go back to the village and tell sir Lux to come here and help, we'll need at least another adult to deal with the bandits." Scrooge tells Cordelia. "I'll think about where to set up traps to capture the bandits when they try to escape in the meantime. Oh, and tell him to bring some ropes too."

"Got it!" Cordelia turns and was about to leave, but then she turns back to look at Scrooge. "Don't do anything rash while I'm not around, okay?" She says.

"I'm a schemer, not a fighter, Cordelia." Scrooge sighs. "I'm not so stupid to go challenging a group of bandit by myself..." He reassures Cordelia.

Cordelia nods and quickly leaves the place with her Pegasus.

Scrooge watches Cordelia off and goes back to thinking. "Hm… If I were to do that… then the bandits would react like this, and then they would… but then… Urgh, that was stupid! Should have told Cordelia to call Donny, too…"

!

Suddenly, from inside the house, something flies out of the house, smashing a big hole on the wall of the house.

Scrooge startled. He tries to see what happened, but there's too much dust so he can't see it clearly. The only thing he could see is a silhouette of a person amidst the dust… "Wait, that's…?"

The dust clears up as the person gets up from the ground with difficulties, giving Scrooge the clear image of that person: A girl with long red hair tied into twin tails.

"Severa!"

* * *

_Sanjima: Hello everyone, thank you for finishing chapter 14. The beginning of the chapter started with Donnel, making it feels like he's going to be the main focus of this chapter, and yet mid way of the chapter, the focus shifted back to Scrooge... Please, don't be angry with me, before I realized it, it already turned out like that... Aside from that, all I can say is that with the sudden appearance of Severa at the end of this chapter, things are going to be a bit messy from here on out, I suppose, hopefully it doesn't turn out to be a big mess lol. So, please look forward to the next chapter, everyone. Thank you very much!_


End file.
